If Tomorrow Never Happens
by Jack E. Peace
Summary: It was supposed to be the happiest day of Sam's life, but no one could had predicted how quickly things would change. And now Sam has to rescue the woman he loves once again, but it may all ready be too late. (Completed)
1. The Butterflies

Disclaimer: None of the characters from the movie belong to me. Everyone else does.

A/N: So, this is my first multi chapter _Day _fic, but I just felt the need to write one; it takes place about a year after the events of the first movie. Please enjoy and review to let me know how you feel about it.

Chapter One

The Butterflies

Sam Hall didn't think he'd ever get used to wearing a coat down in Mexico, it just wasn't natural; despite everything that happened, whenever he thought of Mexico, he still thought of sandy beaches and tropical weather. But all that had changed, and that was an understatement; the northern part of the world was still nothing more then a giant ice cube and the climate of the remaining world resembled that of an icebox. Sam didn't think he'd seen a day where the temperature had been above seventy degrees since everything had happened a year ago. Hence the need for the jacket.

With his pullover zipped snuggly, Sam debated grabbing mittens for a moment; he decided against them and left the kitchen, heading back through the hallway of the small abode he shared with his girlfriend, Laura Chapman, toward the bedroom. Silently, he eased the door open and peaked inside; Laura was still sound asleep on their king sized bed, her hands wrapped tightly around the rumpled covers, head tucked down. It was how she slept every night, holding tightly onto whatever she happened to grab onto, head always bowed as though she was protecting herself from something. Sam watched her for a moment, a slight smile turning up the corners of his lips; he had loved her ever since the first day he had seen her, and not much had changed.

Laura stirred, as though she sensed someone was watching her and her eyes fluttered open; she saw that the bed was empty aside from herself and her eyes trailed across the room until they rested on Sam. She smiled and yawned, releasing the covers and sitting up.

Sam pushed the door open the rest of the way and walked into the room. "Morning." He greeted, kissing her lightly on the cheek as he sat down on the mattress next to her.

Laura smiled but she had noted his attire and her eyes clouded over. "Where are you going?" She questioned. "You said you were coming to work with me today."

"I know." Sam said. "But I'm going to see my dad first, there's something I have to talk to him about." He added.

Laura rolled her eyes. "You're being secretive again." She pointed out and Sam smiled slightly. It was true, for the past few days, Sam had been acting like a completely different person, going out and not telling her where, spending a lot more time with his mother then he usually did and always giving her roundabout answers to her questions. If she didn't think it was so cute, Laura might have been suspicious; but, then again, she had known Sam for a little over a year and knew she didn't have anything to worry about.

"I know." Sam agreed, standing up again and giving her a kiss on the forehead. "I've got to go, I'll see you later."

Laura grabbed onto his hand and stopped him from leaving; Sam turned back to look at her. "Will you come to work later?" She questioned, pulling him down again so she could get another kiss before he left.

Sam nodded as he kissed her, squeezing her hand lightly. "I'll take you to lunch." He said when the kiss was broken. "There's something I want to ask you."

_Secretive_, Laura thought but said, "Ask me now."

"Later." Sam promised, standing up and heading for the door. He turned back to face her. "Love you."

Laura smiled. "Love you." She said and watched him disappear. With a sigh, she flopped back down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She wondered what Sam was up to, she'd been wondering for the past few days.

Oh well, she would know soon enough. Right now, she had to get ready for work; with another sigh, she slipped out of bed and headed toward the bathroom for the shower that would officially begin her day.

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A light snow was drifting from the clouds above but Sam didn't pay attention to the flakes as he stepped outside; snow was a common occurrence now, he didn't even get nervous anymore. His father, Jack Hall, had predicted that the storm had passed and they just had to live with the change of climate and the new Ice Age for the next thousand years. _Not that I'll have to worry about it for that long_, Sam thought to himself as he stuck his hands in his pockets. He should have brought the mittens.

The abode he and Laura were staying in was one of many clustered in a small space, a spur of the moment neighborhood that everyone had adapted to over the past months. There were dozens of the crowded neighborhoods all around the Mexican border now, taking the place of the tents that had once housed the U.S. refugees. From where Sam's house was located, it was a short walk to the border, which was no longer what it had been before the storm; the fence had been taken down, as had the checkpoints and a large bridge had been constructed across the Rio Grande, heading into Texas. No one used cars anymore, for fear of what the pollution would bring about, and everything was close to everything else.

The remainder of the state of Texas had become the actual city, since Mexico city had become a residential area; the towering office buildings that had survived the storm were now the places were most of the survivors were employed, several grocery and clothes stores.

But Sam wasn't heading for the border today; today he was bound for the American Embassy, which had become the center for weather and climate research, as well as the temporary housing for the president and other government officials. The top floor of the Embassy served as the hospital, where Sam's mother, Lucy, worked, just above her husband.

Sam had been spending a lot of time in the Embassy lately, asking his mother for advice whenever his father was too busy to talk. Monitoring the weather had become even more of a full time job for Jack Hall now then it had been before, with people more aware of what was happening, constantly needing reassurance that another super-storm wasn't on the way. But Sam needed to talk to his father, this was the sort of topic that required a father, son conversation.

The officer standing outside the double doors that led into the Embassy nodded at Sam as he arrived; they exchanged short hellos and soon Sam was inside the lobby of the embassy. The air conditioner had been disengaged long ago and the heater buzzed, emanating a little heat and he took his hands out of his pockets; slowly, everyone was adjusting to the new climate, their new lives.

As usual, the lobby was bustling with people, shouting into radios or at each other, rushing around, flipping through folders and trying to balance cups of steaming coffee. Sam noticed the Chinese woman his father worked with, Janet Tokada, standing near the main desk, arguing with the man standing behind it, and headed over. If anyone knew where to find his father, it would be Janet.

"Can you not argue this time?" The woman was asking the man behind the desk. "And just do it? For once?" She narrowed her eyes and the man nodded and Sam could see why; Janet was intimidating when she needed to be, which was often. Despite the changes that had taken place over the past year, she still wasn't a respected member of the newly assembled team and wasn't afraid to twist a few wrists and throw her weight around to make sure that that didn't last for long.

Janet turned away from the desk and noticed Sam; the stony look on her face disappeared and was replaced with a smile. "Sam, how are you?" She greeted, heading over to him.

"All right." Sam told her. "Have you seen my father? There's something I need to talk to him about."

Janet nodded, a knowing smile turning up her lips. "Your mother told me what you were planning to do." She told him as they headed way from the desk and down a hallway. "It's a big step." She pointed out.

Sam nodded in agreement. "I know, believe me, I know." He'd had butterflies fluttering around in his stomach like crazy for the past few days. But not even the ever present butterflies could persuade him that he wasn't ready to ask Laura to marry him.

"Well," Janet continued. "When you propose, go for the big romantic scene; that's how Jason asked me to marry him." She flashed Sam her engagement ring as though he hadn't seen it a hundred times before. "In front of everyone, down on one knee, the whole thing. It was cheesy, but we girls love cheesy." She beamed.

Sam nodded; he hadn't put a lot of thought into how he was actually going to ask Laura to marry him, he'd been too busy picking out the perfect ring, asking his mother for advice and convincing his friends Brian and J.D. that they could both be his best men. He didn't care how he proposed, he just hoped that Laura said yes.

They stopped in front of Jack's office. "Well, good luck, Sam." Janet said with a smile before heading off the way they had come, no doubt to yell at a few more hapless employees. Sam knocked lightly on the door that led into Jack's office but didn't wait to be invited in; his father knew he was coming.

Jack Hall sat at his desk with his partner, Jason Evans, looking over his shoulder; they were staring intently at something on the computer screen in front of them and Sam shut the door as quietly as he could, so not to disturb him.

"These numbers don't make any sense." Jack mumbled to himself, chewing on the cap of the pen he held in his hand. "I've never gotten a read like this before."

Sam took a step closer, interested, the butterflies flapping ten times harder; any time his father looked worried or concerned, it wasn't a good thing. Despite the fact that Jack insisted the super-storms were over, Sam couldn't help but get nervous every time something new occurred in the weather patterns.

"I don't think it has any thing to do with the weather." Jason remarked, his tone as low and concentrated as Jack's.

Jack sighed. "What else could it be?" He questioned, once again, seeming to speak more to himself then to his partner.

Sam cleared his throat and both men looked up. "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt." He apologized. "What's going on?"

Jack's gaze flickered from his son to the computer screen and then back again. "Just some interesting readings. They don't have anything to do with climate or anything related to the weather but I can't figure out why the computer is receiving them." He answered.

Sam walked around the desk and stood on his father's other side, peering down at the computer screen and reading the numbers that were flashing. "Maybe from the ground?" He suggested, since the air and water had already been ruled out.

"You mean like an earthquake?" Jason questioned. This was something they hadn't thought of before.

Jack studied the screen for a moment longer. "Jason, see if you can find a rictor scale, I want to try and measure the data that way." Jason nodded and hurried off to do what his boss had commanded.

Sam looked over at his father. "Dad, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about." He started, the butterflies beating away again.

Jack turned away from his computer and gave his son his complete attention. "Your mother mentioned something about that. What's on your mind?" He questioned. Sam hadn't come to him with a problem since he had been a little boy but their relationship had improved a lot since then. Sam finally knew that he could trust and rely on his father and that his father would always make time for him.

"Well," Sam sighed, nervous once again. If he was too nervous to bring the subject up to his own father, how was he supposed to bring it up to Laura? "I was thinking about asking Laura to marry me."

Jack looked surprised for a moment. "Marry you? Son, you're only eighteen years old." He pointed out.

"I know." Sam agreed. "But you were only nineteen when you married Mom, she told me." He pointed out and Jack nodded in agreement. "I know that I love her and that I want to be with her, so why wait?"

Jack sighed. "But this is a big step." He reminded his son. "Something you shouldn't take lightly."

"Trust me, Dad, I'm not taking this lightly." Sam assured his father. He stuck his hands in his pockets again and fingered the small, velvet box that held Laura's engagement ring; he had been carrying it with him everywhere. He never got tired to taking the box out and studying the ring, imaging how it was going to look on Laura's finger. "But this is something I want, something I'm ready for."

Jack sighed for the second time in so many minutes. "I know Laura's very special to you." He said. Sam nodded; how important Laura was to him was something he could never express in words. "Well," he paused and look at Sam. "I hope she says us. What am I saying, I know she'll say yes." Sam smiled.

"Thanks, Dad." He said, the butterflies in his stomach not relenting in their flight. Sure he was nervous, but he was always nervous when it came to Laura, she just had the effect on him and he was convinced that it often wasn't a bad feeling. "Got any pointers?"

Jack thought for a moment and then smiled. "Go with cheesy, girls love cheesy."


	2. The Unexpected

Chapter Two

The Unexpected

Laura shivered, pulling her fleece pullover tightly around her shoulders, as she pushed open the revolving door that led into the lobby of the Mall of Texas, -which had once been a twenty-five story office building- where most people were employed and where nearly everyone did their shopping. The lobby was crowded, just as it always was, filled with mothers and their small children, employees finishing the last of their breakfast, putting off going to work as long as possible and shoppers trying to decide which floor to hit first. Laura, herself, was heading for the eighth floor, where she had found a job working as a sales clerk in a large clothing store.

Elsa Sanders, the woman Laura had first met a year ago in New York, was standing in front of the elevators, taping her foot impatiently as she waited for a cab to arrive. Her arms were crossed over her chest and there was a scowl on her face, the expression that always seemed to be on her features; she and Laura worked together and Laura knew that beneath the scowl and the untamable mass of curls, Elsa was really a good person.

"Hey Laura." Elsa greeted when Laura joined her beside the elevator. "What's up?" The doors to the elevator finally slid open and they entered together, joined by a pair of giggling pre-teen girls and a mother and her twin boys.

Laura told Elsa there was nothing new and for the rest of the ride to the eighth floor, Elsa told her that she believed her new neighbor was a stalker. Laura nodded politely throughout the story, but her mind was on Sam and how strange he had been acting lately; he was hiding something from her and he had never done that before. Making sure was making a big deal out of nothing, but she couldn't help but wonder; today at lunch, she'd ask him about it and she'd make sure that he didn't dance around the answer.

"Earth to Laura?" Elsa said, jarring her out of her thoughts and causing Laura to look up at the woman. "Are you all right?" She questioned and Laura saw that the elevator had stopped at their floor and she was the last person inside the cab, with Elsa holding the doors open so she didn't ride the elevator to another floor.

Laura hurried out of the elevator. "I'm fine." She answered. "Just a little preoccupied." Elsa nodded, almost knowingly, as they walked away from the elevator and down the tiled hallway with various shops and stores on either side of them.

"I see that." Elsa said as they passed the book store, where the mother with the teenage boys was attempting to shop. "Thinking about Sam?" Laura looked up, a semi-surprised look on her face. "You just had that look in your eyes." She clarified and Laura nodded, agreeing that her mind had been on Sam.

The clothing shop where they worked was next to a pet store, something Elsa complained about every chance she got, and the food court, something that Elsa didn't complain about; the metal gate was still in place, sealing off the store until it was opened again the next day, and the store itself was dim, encased in shadows. Elsa pulled a key ring from her purse and shifted through the dozens of keys until she found the one that would unlock the partition. "Must be nice to have someone to think about." She mused as she bent down to unlock the gate. "Of course, I do have my crazy stalker neighbor but..."

Laura helped Elsa push the gate up, standing on her tiptoes and stretching her arms high above her head to make sure that the gate was pushed up high enough so that it locked in place. Once, she had made the mistake of just shoving it up and the gate had fallen back down, trapping her inside the store since it could only be unlocked from the outside; Sam, who worked at the hardware store on the level below, had come looking for her and found her locked inside the store. After he had stopped laughing, he had managed to track down Elsa and get the key to the gate; Laura was not too keen on repeating the experience.

Once the gate was locked in place Elsa and Laura entered the store, Laura flicking on the lights as she walked inside. "Sam's been acting strange lately." She told Elsa. "And I can't help but wonder-" Before she could even finish her words, the other girl was ready to offer advice.

"Sam's a guy, guys are always acting strange." Elsa reminded the dark haired girl. "You don't have anything to worry about, Sam loves you." Laura smiled at the thought; Sam did love her, she had never doubted that fact. "Now that the crisis has passed," She continued, once again shattering Laura's thoughts of Sam, her sweet, perfect Sam. "Go into the storeroom and start unloading the new shipment of jeans."

Laura sighed, stuck with manual labor again (Elsa had stopped buying her excuse about the long lasting effects of blood poisoning several months ago, despite the fact that Sam's mother said it was a possibility) and headed toward the storeroom to do as she had been instructed.

At least no one would interrupt her thoughts about Sam for a while.

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"Laura!" Elsa shouted over the constant barking of the dogs in the pet shop next door. There was no answer. "Laura!"

From her spot in the store room, seated on the floor surrounded by cardboard boxes and bubble wrap, Laura rolled her eyes. She had been patiently and peacefully doing her job for the last three hours, what did Elsa have to complain about now? "What?" She shouted back, hoping that she had been heard over the yapping of the dogs. Ever since they had arrived at work four hours ago, the dogs had been barking nonstop, something pretty rare since the animals rarely had anything to sound off about. Laura was about to go next door and complain but she knew there was nothing the pet shop owner could do about the noise.

Elsa headed out from behind the counter, keeping an eye on the two pre-teenage girls that were browsing the shelves and laughing, going in the direction of the storeroom. She opened the door and peeked inside; Laura was sitting on the floor behind a mountain of cardboard boxes and piles of merchandise. "It's almost lunch break, you want anything from the food court?" She questioned, causing the dark-haired girl to look up in surprise; she'd been alone for hours and clearly wasn't expecting the sudden appearance of her co-worker.

Laura shook her head. "No, I'm going out to dinner with Sam." She answered, a tiny smile turning up the corners of her lips. She couldn't help it, the mere mention of Sam made her smile.

Elsa nodded. "Okay, keep on eye on the store until I get back." She commanded, heading out of the store room, leaving the door open behind her. Laura shifted her position so that she could see out the open door and into the store beyond; she noticed that everyone she had rode the elevator with was in the store, including the mother with the twin boys, who looked bored and restless as they watched their mother move from rack to rack, checking prices first and then the garments. Elsa headed out of the store and into the food court; Laura checked her watch, Sam was due in twenty minutes. And then she'd finally know what had been causing him to act so secretive lately.

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Jason finally returned with the rictor scale it had taken him nearly four hours to come across; in all the worry and chaos generated by the super-storms, no one had paid much attention to or cared about other natural disasters. And this was evident to Jack when he saw the machine his partner had managed to lug it; it was rusted and covered with dust and bits of snow. "Sorry boss," Jason apologized as he shut the door behind him. "I had to go up to Texas to find this."

Jack assured him that it was okay and the mention of Texas caused Sam's heart to skip a beat. It was almost time for Laura's lunch break and he was finally going to do it, he was finally going to propose, something that made him both nervous and excited; but, then again, the prospect of being around Laura did that to him anyway.

"Dad," Sam began, "I'm going to go meet Laura-"

Jack looked up. "Can you help us with this for a minute, Sam?" He questioned, though it was clear that he didn't feel good about keeping his son from the girl that he loved.

Sam checked his watch; he still had twenty minutes before he was due to meet Laura. "Sure."

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Elsa was trying to figure out if asking the teenage girls if they were actually planning on buying anything was a good idea; as she took a sip of her soda, she decided against it. Customers were customers, maybe sooner or later they would buy something. She set her soda back onto the counter.

From inside the storeroom, Laura was humming quietly to herself -an old Faith Hill song- as she finished folding a pair of jeans; she was planning on finishing up with her half of the storeroom chores before she went to lunch with Sam so that when she came back she could make Elsa slave away. She could see Elsa from where she sat; the woman was no longer watching the teenagers but staring down at her soda can. Laura was about to call out and ask her what was so fascinating about an aluminum can when a faint rumbling sound reached her ears. At first, she thought it was thunder, but it disappeared too quickly for her to place it; shrugging her shoulders, she went back to her folding.

Elsa was staring down at her coda can as though it was the most captivating thing in the world; the can itself was shaking, sliding around on the completely flat and level surface of the counter. For a moment, the movement of the can reminded her of that movie, with the dinosaurs and how the water in the cups would shake whenever a dinosaur came near but, as far as she knew, there were no dinosaurs around.

And so, with the dinosaur theory out of the question, Elsa couldn't figure out what was causing the can the shake the way it was. She looked up, trying to figure out if anyone else in the store was noticing anything weird; Laura was still plodding along with her work, the girls were modeling clothes in front of a full-body mirror and the mother was fussing at her children. _You're cracking up, El_ she thought to herself, rolling her eyes. Maybe so.

But then she felt it, a gentle rumbling beneath her feet; Elsa looked down, as though she expected to see the floor beneath her moving. The floor was stationary as always, but there was no mistaking the rumbling, which she could hear as well as feel; the vibrates moved up her legs, eerie and unnerving. Elsa looked up, the others were noticing it as well. Elsa had lived in California for most of her life, before she had moved to New York when she had been twenty-five, deciding she was going to be a Broadway star and when you lived in California, you knew what the beginnings of an earthquake felt like. And she was sure as hell feeling them now; but it was impossible, she'd never heard of an earthquake in Mexico before. _But you'd also never heard of a single storm that could make the new Ice Age, now did you?_

Elsa looked over in Laura's direction; the younger girl had noticed the rumbling as well and was looking around with her eyes even wider then they normally were. "Laura-" She started but the flicking lights caused her words to freeze her in throat.

The ground beneath her feet started to shake and Laura looked around, trying to figure out what was going on; the boxes around her teetered and one crashed to the floor, spilling out tee-shirts and jeans. She heard Elsa call her name and then the lights flickered once before cutting out completely; from where she sat, she could hear two shouts of surprise.

Laura got to her feet, intending on getting out of the storeroom before whatever was happening could get worse. And what was happening? She had absolutely no idea and she was terrified. The ground was shaking and groaning, and she almost couldn't stand, her footing too unstable; it seemed impossible but Laura was beginning to wonder if she wasn't experiencing the beginnings of an earthquake. _In Mexico? _her mind questioned.

With a groan, the shaking got worse and Laura was knocked to her feet; whether she was in Mexico or not, this was certainly an earthquake. She could hear the building creak, metal squealing, as the shifting of the earth started pulling it apart. Laura shivered, whimpering slightly, as she curled into a ball, tucking her chin and covering her head; she couldn't believe this was happening and she wished Sam was here.

The boxes around her crashed into the ground, many of the them falling onto her; Laura knew that she was all right as long as the metal shelves didn't fall on top of her. The storeroom door slammed shut, pushed by the trembling ground and she was completely alone. Beneath her, Laura could fell the ground seem to stretch apart and she prayed that the ground wouldn't actually split around her. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly, feeling completely helpless as the building stretched and crumbled around her.

The sound of grating metal filled her ears and Laura looked up seconds before the first of the trio of metal shelves crashed toward the ground, catching her in the back and knocking her head in the head. The last thing Laura was aware of before everything became black was praying that Sam was all right.

Elsa dropped to her knees and pressed against the counter, urging the others in the store to find something solid to use for stability and protection. The twin boys were crying, and the mother was unsuccessfully trying to get them to calm down. Glass shattered and Elsa realized that the many mirrors in the store were breaking; she hoped that no one was around the falling glass.

The walls of the store were beginning to crumble, plaster and other unidentifiable chunks slamming into the ground and Elsa covered her head. There was a metallic grating sound as the metal gate that sealed off the store when it wasn't in operation was jarred lose and came crashing to the ground.

As the building continued to crumble around her, all Elsa could do was hope that it would be over soon.

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As soon as the ground began to groan and shudder, Jack Hall knew exactly what was taking place. He had only been through one earthquake in his entire life, when he had been twelve visiting his aunt in California, but once was enough. An earthquake was beginning and he didn't need a damn rictor scale to tell him that.

"Get down." Jack commanded, shoving Sam toward the ground, pushing him beneath the desk. Jason followed suit and Jack managed to squeeze in beside his son.

The lights cracked and popped, plunging the room into the complete darkness; Sam moved closer to his father, unable to fight the instinct that said that a parent would always protect its child. However, he doubted there was a lot anyone could do to protect anyone at this moment.

Above them, things slid and bounced off the desk, crashing onto the floor with considerable force. Jack could feel the very screws of the desk begin to give way and he hoped that the desk wouldn't collapse on top of them; every piece of the desk was solid cherry wood and could render sufficient damage.

A text book flipped off the desk and landed solidly on Sam's leg before dropping to the ground; Sam pulled his legs inward until his chin was resting on his knees. He felt the familiar solid bulge in his pocket, pressing against his thigh: the box that held Laura's engagement ring. Laura! Sam's heart began to hammer in his chest as he thought of her; was she all right? Had the earthquake traveled that far up? Was she hurt? He wanted to go to her, to make sure she was all right, he had never wanted anything so badly. _My sweet Laura, _Sam thought, the sound of the crumbling room and groaning Earth heavy in his ears, _please be all right._

The heavy rictor machine screeched across the desk, knocking off everything in its path, including the computer monitor, which shattered on the ground harmlessly. The rictor scale itself, however, crashed into Jack's knee, shattering both bone and machine; Jack groaned in pain, grabbing onto his knee, knowing that bone had been broken.

"Dad?" Sam questioned, looking over at his father. "Are you all right?" Jack didn't look all right, his eyes were squeeze shut tightly and his teeth were bared in a grimace of pain.

Jack didn't have time to answer, for the screws holding the desk together finally groaned and broke lose, sending the surface of the desk tumbling onto those that had taken shelter beneath it.

Sam's last thought was not of his father but of Laura before everything went completely dark.


	3. The Cage

Chapter Three

The Cage

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The night was so cold that Sam could see his breath when he stepped outside, shivering, onto the patio, which was bare since they had no furniture to fill it with. They had just moved in at the beginning of the week and even if they hadn't, he had never been one for patio furniture. From where he stood, rubbing his hands together, Sam could see Laura, sitting cross-legged on the brittle lawn, staring up at the night sky. She wasn't aware that he had come outside and he took the opportunity to stare at her, unnoticed, just as he did whenever he got the chance; she was so beautiful, her skin a pale color because of the cold and the after-effects of blood poisoning, her heavy ringlets cascading down her back and shoulders and her beautiful round eyes taking in the sparking stars.

Laura's gaze traveled away from the sky and she seemed startled to suddenly see Sam standing on the porch. "What are you looking at?" She questioned, looking behind her for a moment as though there was something back there far more captivating then she. The yard was small and she didn't have to shout to be heard.

Sam just smiled, amazed by the fact that Laura, herself, was still amazed at the way he felt about her. It had been two months since they had escaped the super-storm in New York, two months since he had first told her how he really felt about her and Laura seemed both amazed and anxious about the way he felt, as though she was expecting him to get bored and move on. Sam wished he could explain to her that that would never happen.

Laura beckoned to him. "Come here." She called, ending the silence. Sam did as she said, smiling again when she grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the frost covered ground beside her. "Have you ever seen so many stars?" She questioned, gaze sweeping upward again.

Sam looked up; the sky was completely clear, not even the faintest wisp of a cloud in sight and without the many street lamps and artificial lights to obscure the sky, it really seemed as though he was gazing up at the entire night sky. He was a city kid, born and raised, and the only time he had seen such a mass of stars had been on his trip to Greenland with his father; but sitting here with Laura, the stars he had seen then were nothing compared to the ones he was seeing now.

Sam let out an appreciative, nearly silent, whistle as he agreed that he had never seen as many stars; he slipped his arm around Laura's waist and she leaned her head against his shoulder. She was shivering slightly, and he held her tightly, trying to stop her shaking.

For a moment, they sat in silence, with Laura studying the night sky and Sam studying her. After a while, Sam said, "Did you ever used to play that game with your parents? Well, I guess it's not really a game but...where you'd pick a star and make a wish?"

Laura looked down at him and shook her head. "My mom was always busy with work and I was always busy trying to be the best and my little sister was always busy being a pest." She admitted, sighing and looking down at the ground. Sometimes, it still hurt to admit why she had invested so much time in studying and that she really had worked to be the smartest, the best at everything. Sam took her hand and Laura looked up again; sometimes it didn't hurt so much.

Sam kissed her lightly on the cheek and she smiled. He laid down on his back, pulling Laura down with him so that her head was resting on his chest; they were both studying the star filled sky and he wondered if she was making wishes on all the stars. Sam thought about wishing himself, but the thing he would have wished for he already had.

The first thing that Sam was aware of when he struggled out of unconsciousness was the fact that he his cheeks were damp; he had been crying in his private blackness, thinking of Laura and knowing, somehow, that the earthquake where she was had been much worse, that she wasn't okay. For a fleeting moment, he wished he were unconsciousness once again, back on the lawn with Laura in his arms, a perfect night, a perfect memory.

"Sam?" Jack questioned once he saw his son had stirred. He gently shook Sam and his son's eyes snapped openly quickly.

Sam looked almost confused. "Where's Laura?" He questioned, blinking away the tears that had yet to fall and shaking away the thoughts that had convinced him that the woman he loved was in danger. Maybe it was all just a nightmare and he'd find Laura safe at home, asleep in their bed with the covers clutched tightly and her head bowed.

Jack looked at his son with concern on his face. "Sam," he began slowly, "do you remember what happened?" His face was still a mask of unexpressed pain, his cheeks red and brow knitted but he looked more worried about his son then himself.

Sam nodded slowly, he remembered: earthquake. "I have to get to Laura." He said, getting to his feet quickly and wishing he hadn't. His head spun, the room spun, everything tilted and he fell back to the ground, squeezing his eyes against the blinding pain.

It was only when Sam opened his eyes again, the spinning gone, that he was able to get a look at the room that had once been his father's orderly office. The desk that had landed on top of him lay in a heap, the broken shards of the computer monitor poking out a odd angles. Jason lay beside the desk, still unconscious, bleeding from a gash in his head but breathing regularly. Sam let his eyes travel away from his father's partner and around the rest of the room; the walls had crumbled, chunks of plaster and brick laying smashed on the ground along with picture frames and potted plants. The glass covering the windows had broken and the lights were still out, no doubt shattered like everything else.

Sam gently prodding the side of his head with his fingers and wasn't at all surprised when he pulled them back, sticky with blood. Jack looked at him with concern, as though he hadn't noticed the injury before. "Sam, you've got to get to a doctor." He muttered, though it pretty much went without saying.

"No," Sam looked at his father, "I have to find out if Laura's okay." But somehow, someway, he knew that she wasn't. His heart felt like it was going to break into pieces at any moment, torn by not knowing whether or not Laura was hurt.

Jack looked at his son. "Sam, you could have a concussion." He pointed out. "Now I know you're worried about Laura but-"

"I can't just sit here, Dad." Sam said, trying to get to his feet again but his head commanding him back down. He leaned against the rubble that was the desk and closed his eyes. "I can't just leave her."

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The ground shuddered one final time and everything was still, unnaturally so, as though the entire world had be put on pause. It was eerie, silent and Elsa thought for a moment that she was dead.

A piercing cry split the silent air and Elsa's eyes snapped open quickly as her mind fought to identify the sound and scramble itself back into place. When a similar cry followed suit, she realized that it was the twin boys, wailing; seconds later, the mother's voice started trying to sooth them. At least they were okay.

Elsa slowly lifted her head and even more slowly got to her feet, leaning against the counter and checking herself for injuries. Aside from being shaky and scared shitless, she was all right.

The room was black but Elsa could barely make out the shaking forms of the customers that had happened to be in the store when the quake had started. From what she could tell, no one seemed too badly injured, but she didn't want to jump to conclusions while there was still one person unaccounted for. "Laura?" She called as loudly as her shaking voice. Elsa turned in the direction of the storeroom. "Laura?" A little louder this time.

There was no answer from inside the room and Elsa knew there was something wrong with the girl inside; Laura would have said something by now, she would have come out. The only reason that she wouldn't have answered would have been because she was hurt or... _Don't even think it! _She commanded. _Don't go there. _But it was hard.

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The American Embassy was in a state of chaos and disrepair but not enough to keep those inside from rushing to the aid of the wounded. As soon as she was certain the quake was over, Janet rushed from her makeshift hiding spot and hurried toward Jack's office, where she had last seen her fiancé, his partner and Sam. All around her, she could hear the mumbled words of concern and the not-so muffled cries of pain from those who hadn't been lucky enough to escape falling debris. The building itself didn't seem too damaged, with the carpet littered with shattered glass and the occasional chunk of plaster that had been shaken loose from the wall; Janet knew from experience that things could have been a lot worse.

The door to Jack Hall's office had to be forced open and Janet stumbled instead, her eyes scanning the room. Jack looked up as soon as she entered. "Sam needs to see a doctor." He said, not bothering to waste his time on unnecessary concerns. Sam mumbled something; Jack ignored him and went on to explain that Jason could use a doctor as well and he believed his own leg was broken.

Janet hurried off again to find someone to collaborate with on how the emergency should be dealt with; Sam groaned and shifted so that he could empty the contents of his pocket, including Laura's engagement ring and his cell phone. Holding the box tightly, he flipped open his cell phone, hoping the cell phone towers hadn't been damaged in the quake; there was only one bar of service, but that would have to do. Jack watched silently as his son dialed Laura on speed-dial.

_The cell phone you are trying to reach is currently not in service _was the message that Sam received after the first ring. He cursed as the message continued to repeat, snapping the phone shut and biting onto his bottom lip. He had to get to Laura, he had to make sure she was okay.

"Maybe the towers were damaged where Laura is." Jack offered. He had seen that look on his son's face before, the look that said that there was nothing that could stop him from doing whatever had come into his head. Whether Sam realized it or not, he was in serious need of medical attention; the gash on the side of his head continued to bleed and he could barely stand up. If his son was planning on going to the building where Laura worked, then Jack was going to have something to say about that.

Sam looked over at his father but didn't say anything; at least that way he could pretend that maybe it was true.

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When Elsa had been five years old, her kindergarten teacher had picked her to the be a team captain for dodge-ball and she had promptly told the woman that she didn't handle being in charge of others very well. When Elsa had been in the seventh grade, her favorite teacher had thought it would be a good idea if she was class monitor and made sure everyone was quiet and in control while the teacher was out of the room; promptly, the class had become unruly and Elsa had found herself unable to keep them neither quiet or in control. Needless to say, the way Elsa saw it, she wasn't cut out to be in control or in charge of anything and she had been content with that fact for most of her life; she'd rather follow orders then give them.

But when Elsa found herself looking at the frightened group in her store, she realized that it was about time to assume some sort of control, because it was clear that no one else was around to do it. Maybe if Laura hadn't been trapped in the storeroom, she'd make her handle this but Laura wasn't here (something that worried her) and there was no one else.

"Okay," Elsa said, her voice shaky, "Is everyone all right?" The mother with the twins looked up, holding her children tightly against her; she nodded that both she and her boys were all right.

One of the pre-teenage girls, a blonde, looked at Elsa with tears streaming from her eyes. "My friend, she's been cut. Bad." She sniffed and Elsa figured that one of the broken mirrors had found their mark. "What's going on?"

Elsa sighed. "I think there's been an earthquake." There was silence; being the voice of authority wasn't so hard after all. "I have no idea what shape the other floors are in but I'd guess not good." A look around her own store and the solid silence was enough to tell her that. "But I'm sure the Embassy is going to be coming to help us soon." _Isn't that what you thought in New York? _questioned the scared shitless part of her brain. _Didn't you think that someone, anyone, would be around to bail you out of the library and look how long you were in that room, living off Skittles and burning books. _Elsa tried to push that thought from her mind, but it wouldn't go away.

Thinking of the library made her think of Laura again; she had to get into the storeroom and make sure she was all right. Walking carefully, hardly able to see in the darkness, Elsa headed over to where she knew the storeroom door to be; she slid her hand along the wall, once slicing her palm on a jagged piece of plaster, until she found the handle. The knob turned back the door was being forced shut by something in front of it and no matter how hard Elsa pushed, that something wouldn't give way.

"Laura?" Elsa tried again, pressing her face as close to the door as she could. "If you're all right, Laura, please say something."

There was no answer, nothing but silence and the continuous crying of the twin boys or the teenager girls or both. Elsa laid her head against the door and shut her eyes, fighting back the tears; she was utterly at a loss of what to do. A girl could possibly bleed to death, the building is falling apart, she could hear the metal groaning as it pulled apart and her best friend was possibly dead. At least in New York she had had someone telling her what to do, someone else to worry about what they were going to do. Now that person was herself and she didn't think she could handle it.

Elsa nearly jumped out of her skin when a shrill ringing noise split the silence suddenly. It took her nearly a full minute to identify the sound that she had heard for most of her life. Her cell phone was ringing.

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Sam lay on a makeshift stretcher -which was really nothing other then couch cushions pushed together, holding his cell phone pressed against his ear, listening to it ring and watching live coverage on the small black and white television set in front of him. The lobby of the Embassy had been transformed into an unofficial hospital wing since those suffering injuries couldn't be moved upstairs into the actual hospital and those taking up floor space were less then he would have thought at first. But that all made sense, if what the news reporter on the black and white television was saying was true.

Robert "First on the Scene" Andrews stood in front of the Mall of Texas, which looked nothing like it had when the sun had risen that morning. The building looked like someone had cut it in half, shook it around a little bit and then tried to put it back together; the bottom levels were completely crumbled and caved in and the top levels didn't look much better.

"Though most of Mexico felt the earthquake as well," Andrews was saying into his microphone, "The quake is believed that have actually occurred at the Mexican border." There was a pause, for dramatic effect. "As you can see, the Mall of Texas has sustained significant damage-"

Sam groaned, wishing he had something to throw at the television; nothing the man was saying related to Laura and Laura's co-worker with the cousin in Memphis and the untamable hair wasn't answering her cell phone.

"At this time, no search efforts have been mounted to enter the building." The newscaster continued. "Seeing as the building is still unstable and there is strong fear of aftershocks. For those who may have loved ones possibly inside the building, the police department is urging family members to stay away from the building-"

This time, Sam actually did throw something at the television set: his left shoe, which collided with the screen and knocked the set off the desk and on the floor. The man closest to him shot him a glare before retrieving the set and putting it upright again.

After what seemed like an eternity, the ringing in Sam's ear stopped and a voice replaced it. "Hello?" Elsa questioned, sounding a million miles away and terrified.

"Elsa, where's Laura?" Sam questioned, speaking almost as soon as the phone had been answered. "Is she all right?"

There was a pause. "Sam?" Elsa didn't seem certain. Sam angrily clarified that it was indeed him and repeated his concerns for Laura. "Sam, I don't know if Laura's all right." Her voice sounded small and even more worried.

"What do you mean you don't know if she's all right?" Sam questioned, his voice harsh, his head pounding. His mother had bandaged it as best as she could and had given him something for the pain but it didn't seem to be helping.

Another pause, the line seemed to be going dead, dropping out. "Laura's in the storeroom and she's not answering and the door's blocked and I can't get in and-" Her words were coming out in a rush.

Sam felt his heart begin to tear; Laura, his beautiful, sweet Laura was hurt and there was nothing he could do. Well, that wasn't going to last for long. "Elsa, I'm going to get there as soon as I can." He said, remembering when his father had made the very same promise a year ago. He could tell his voice was breaking up but he hoped Elsa got the message. "And if you get to Elsa before I do tell her-" The line was filled with nothing but static. Sam slowly lowered his cell phone, flipping it shut so that the static disappeared. "Tell her I love her." He mumbled to no one.

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Elsa stared down at her cell phone after it had erupted in static; Sam was coming and he was going to bring help. _Like father, like son _she couldn't help but think and suddenly felt much better; after all, look how well that little rescue mission had turned out. She tossed her cell phone aside and headed away from the counter and toward the back of the store where the others were. She was looking for something heavy to force the storeroom door open and get to Laura; she had heard how worried Sam had sounded and prayed that Laura was all right.

The mother was wrapping one of the teenager's legs tightly with one of the shirts that had fallen off the shelves during the quake when Elsa joined them. "I'm a doctor." She explained when she saw Elsa's look and the other woman just nodded. They were going to need her when they finally got to Laura.

"There's help coming." Elsa explained as she searched around hurriedly for something heavy enough to force the door to the storeroom open. There was something back there. Without another word, Elsa went to the front and starting throwing things aside, looking for something, anything.

There was nothing to be found. Elsa sighed and buried her head in her hands; poor Laura, what was she going to tell Sam? With another, much wearier sigh, she looked up again and her eyes instantly settled upon the front of the store.

The metal gate had crashed back into place, twisted and bent as it rested on the floor, locked into place, keeping those outside the store from getting in. Elsa stared at the gate for a full five minutes, unable to believe what she was seeing; there was no way to open the gate except for from the outside and even then, it didn't look too promising since the metal seemed to be contorted.

It didn't matter how much help Sam brought with him. They were trapped.

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_Okay, so thanks for all the great reviews I'm getting so far; I have to address one review I got that talked about Jack, Jason and Janet's job and I know that they don't work with the tectonic plates but their computers were picking up the readings by accident. Sorry if I didn't make that clear but thanks for keeping me in line ;) Anyway, as for getting DAT its very own category, here's my plan: we all e-mail fanfiction.net that suggestion to do a category until they make one. If enough people suggest it, then I think they'll make one. So, I think I've talked on long enough; thanks again for all the great reviews! _


	4. The Risks

Chapter Four

The Risks

"Lucy, I'm fine." Jack insisted as he wife entered the lobby of the Embassy beside him, attempting once again to check the split and makeshift cast around her husband's leg as he hopped around on crutches. The only time Jack had ever used crutches had been seventeen years ago, when Lucy had been pregnant with Sam and he had fallen off the roof while trying to repair a leaky spot so that it wouldn't drip into the baby's room and apparently, using crutches wasn't like riding a bicycle, it was easy to forget.

Lucy looked up at her husband. "Jack," she began in a tone that the man she was addressing knew very well. It was the 'let me have my way or you'll regret it' tone. "Your knee is all but shattered, I don't think that's fine." She helped Jack over to a chair that had been nestled and abandoned in-between several couch cushions and piles of jackets.

Jack attempted to rest his crutches beside the chair, but they went crashing to the floor. As he attempted to bend over the arm rest of the chair to retrieve them, he noticed that the makeshift mattress he had left Sam on only moments ago was now empty. The crutches forgotten, he lifted his head and scanned the room for his son. Sam was standing by the front desk, leaning against it and rummaging through the metal army issue first-aid kit that had been left on the surface.

"Sam?" Jack called, attempting to get up. Lucy pushed him back into his chair and looked in the direction her husband had addressed, hoping that it wasn't Sam; Sam knew that he shouldn't be up, that he had a concussion and that required hours of resting and taking it easy. But it was Sam.

The boy in question turned around, looking almost guilty, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar moments before dinner. Lucy could see that Sam held a miniature first aid kit in a white plastic box, which contained only the basics like band-aids and gauze, a radio and a flashlight. Sam looked from his father to his mother, trying to decide if he should offer any explanation before they started asking questions.

"Sam James Hall," Lucy started sharply, abandoning her husband and heading over to where her son stood. "I told you that you're not supposed to be up, you know too much movement can make your concussion worse." Sam was still silent. "What are you doing?" Her eyes once again fell to the assortment of items in his hands.

"I'm going to Texas, where Laura works." Sam explained as though it was the most rational thing in the world. He glanced back the metal box in case there was anything else inside that he had missed.

Lucy's eyes went wide. "Sam, what are you thinking?" Her voice rose. By this time, Jack had managed to recover his crutches and had hopped and hobbled over to them. "Number one, you have a concussion," Sam figured that was his mother's favorite phrase of the moment, "and secondly, you have no idea where Laura is. Also, those earthquake guys-"

"Seismologists." Jack supplied.

"-Are you predicting after shocks." Lucy continued as though she hadn't heard him. "It's too dangerous Sam."

Sam had been anticipating this reaction from his parents, which was why he hadn't planned on telling them he was leaving. He had simply decided to leave a message with the front desk, someone like Janet hopefully, and be back with Laura before Jack and Lucy got too worried. "When I was trapped in New York, you didn't stop Dad from coming to get me. You understood why he had to leave; I don't care if you understand now, because I'm going to Laura anyway, but I'm asking you to try."

Lucy didn't know how to respond. "That was different, Sam." She mumbled weakly, but was it really? A part of her didn't think so.

"I love her, Mom." Sam said, his voice even, though inside he was frantic and nervous. Every second he wasted here was a second taken away from getting to Laura, from being with Laura, from holding her in his arms and never letting go again. "And I'm not going to just leave her."

Jack looked at his son for a long moment and in that moment, he realized that Sam wasn't his little boy anymore. He had grown into the man he had hoped he would become ever since the day he was born and that almost threw Jack for a loop; where had all the time gone? "I'm going with you." He said and both Sam and Lucy looked over at him in surprise.

"No way." Sam said with a slight scoff. "You broke your leg, Dad." Jack had been pretending he didn't remember. "And Laura works on the eighth floor."

Lucy turned her attention and worry back on her son. "How are you planning on getting to her?" She questioned, wringing her hands together, a nervous habit. "I know you saw the building on the news, it's collapsed in on itself."

"I don't care Mom!" Sam couldn't help himself from shouting. "Laura's hurt and she needs me and I'll be damned if I just sit around here and wait for someone else to help her." He didn't feel better after he had shouted at his mother, but he did think that she had gotten the point.

Jack understood what was driving Sam, the absolute anguish of not knowing of the one person you loved more then anything else was alive that very moment. Were they hurt, suffering? That was almost worse, wondering if that person was suffering without help. The very same thoughts and emotions had driven him to New York a year ago and Jack knew that Sam was doing everything in his power not to think of the possibility that it might already be too late for Laura. Sam loved her, he had proved that time and again and he was going to prove it now; it was an act of courage and selfless love and Jack understood every bit of it. But that didn't mean that he was going to let his son go into a possible suicide mission.

"Sam," Jack began as patiently as he could. "I know that you love Laura but I don't think you understand how dangerous going into that building could be. The whole thing could collapse; you could get killed."

Sam fixed his father was a solid, unwavering gaze. "I don't care." His voice was even and Jack knew, without a doubt, that he meant what he said.

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Elsa decided not to tell the others in the room that they were trapped inside until they could find a way to cut loose the metal gate. Instead, she headed again to the back of the room and found that the mother had managed to bandage up the girl's leg and had calmed down her sons. "I'm going to need your help." Elsa said, the words mainly spoken to the female doctor but the other teenager could help too. "My friend is trapped in the storeroom and I need help getting the door open."

The doctor stood up, her twins clinging tightly to her legs. "I'm Dr. Kate Brown." She introduced. "And just tell me how I can help your friend."

Elsa nodded, grateful, but somehow, she couldn't understand what drove people to help complete strangers. This woman had two small children that needed her, so what in her led her to eagerly agree to help Laura? Maybe it was just the fact that she was a doctor.

"The door's blocked by something." Elsa said, pushing her other thoughts away. "We have to find something to push it open with."

Dr. Brown nodded and they started searching the store once again; their search yielded no results and Elsa was starting to feel anxious about Laura's situation as well as their own. "We could use the counter." She suggested when there seemed like nothing else to say. With the two of them and the damaged rendered by the earthquake, she and Kate could easily shove the counter into the door and force it open.

"If we get to your friend, we'll need the counter to lay her own." Kate pointed and Elsa realized she was right. Laura's injuries were obviously severe and the floor was covered with rubble and broken glass, which would only cause more damage but the counter was clear and solid.

As Elsa studied the counter in question, she became aware of the jagged cracks running through the floor for the first time. The floor of the store was no longer level, with parts of it raising higher, creating a surface that looked as unstable as it did uneven. She realized that any more drastic movement in the building -like an aftershock, she thought with a shudder- would send the entire floor crashing into whatever was left below it.

"Hey," The voice of the teenage girl that hadn't been injured caused Elsa and Kate to turn in her direction. "One of these shelves is loose, you could use that. Maybe." She added this last part as though she wasn't sure she should have spoken at all.

Elsa hurried in the direction where the girl's voice had come from, her eyes now glued to the floor to keep her from tripping over the fissures in the ground. Kate followed suit and Elsa quickly saw the shelf that the girl had spoke of; one of the heavier wooden racks, used for clearance tee-shirts was hanging out of the wall in the crooked angle. It looked heavy enough to wrench open a door and she hoped that it was.

Together, Elsa and Kate managed to yank the shelf the rest of the way out of the wall, sending a shower of plaster and rubble cascading to the floor. The teenage girl that had spoken sneezed and looked almost sheepish; Elsa was once again struck at the emotions that people expressed during times like this.

The shelf was heavier then she had first anticipated and Kate lost her grip once it had been pulled free; the shelf crashed to the ground, landing on Elsa's fingers and causing her to cry out in pain and jerk her fingers out from beneath the wood. The floor beneath them groaned and shifted, upset by the sudden increase in weight and Elsa forgot all about her fingers as she waited for the floor to give way. With a final shift, the floor remained where it was and it seemed as though the threat of it collapsing had passed for the moment.

"God, I'm sorry." Kate apologized quickly and Elsa just waved her words away. Once Laura was safe and out of the storeroom, then the doctor could apologize all she wanted, and take a look at Elsa's fingers, which she figured were broken because they sure as hell felt that way. _As if things couldn't get any worse... _Elsa thought to herself with a sigh.

Kate and Elsa lifted the shelf of the ground again and managed to balance the weight so that they could both handle it; careful of the cracks in the floor, the dragged the wooden object toward the storeroom door. The door cracked beneath the sudden pressure placed upon it and Elsa squared her shoulders, pressing against the shelf with all of her weight, trying to force the door open. Kate pushed on the door itself, gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut.

Metal squeezed from the opposite side of the door as the twisted metal shelf that had fallen across the threshold was wrenched of the way. The door swung open and the shelf dropped to the ground so suddenly that Elsa dropped with it. Once again, the floor groaned but this time Elsa didn't hold her breath waiting for it to fall out beneath her; she had managed to open the storeroom door and that was all that mattered for the moment.

Elsa lifted her head, squinting her eyes in an attempt to peer through the darkness and locate Laura. It was difficult to see the still form of Laura Chapman lying beneath the other metal shelf but her eyes finally settled on her friend and she drew in a sharp breath. Even from where she was, Elsa could see the part of the shelf had fallen across Laura's shoulders, after having struck her in the back of the head and the other half laying across her waist, successfully pinning her to the ground.

As carefully as she could manage, Elsa navigated around the fallen boxes and spilled shirts and other articles of clothing. Kate followed after her, eyes watching the floor beneath her, batting aside the occasional split cardboard box. When Elsa was at Laura's side, she pressed her index and middle finger against the girls neck, praying like she never had before that she would feel something beneath them; the skin was warm and there was a light pulse. "She's alive." She whispered, looking up at the doctor, who offered her a faint smile.

Kate studied Laura carefully; the upturned side of her face was covered with blood due to a gash on her cheek and another at her hairline. The arm pinned directly beneath part of the metal shelf was swollen and bruised and she suspected something had been broken; because of Laura's winter attire, it was impossible for Kate to assess any injuries below her torso. But even if she had been able to, she knew that none of the injuries would prove to be as bad as the one at the back of Laura's head; the metal shelf had struck her directly, creating what Kate guessed was a fracture, matting Laura's dark curls with blood and staining the back of her shirt. That was the injury that was going to give them the most trouble; a skull fracture was the most difficult to treat, even with the proper instruments and procedures and, aside from that, Laura could possibly bleed to death or hemorrhage.

"This girl needs help." Kate mumbled and Elsa looked up at her as though to say that she had figured that out herself. "More help then I can give her." Even in the dark, Kate could see the way Elsa's face seemed to loose several shades of color.

Elsa looked down at Laura, noticing the injury at the back of her head for the first time. "What should we do?" She had to look away; the sight of blood made her stomach roll and getting sick was the last thing she needed right now.

Kate thought for a moment. "We should try and get this shelf off her." She said finally. She knew that she couldn't move Laura, less the head injury grow worse but she didn't think there was much choice. "And we have to put pressure on her injuries. Aside from that," Kate sighed, "there's not a whole lot we _can _do."

Elsa looked down at her young friend (too young to be almost dead) and brushed a lock of hair away from the cuts on her face. _Come on Sam, _she prayed silently, _just hurry up and get here._

Sam had saved them all once and she prayed he could do it again.

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Thanks for all the reviews, you guys are so great! Just a little question, do you think I should bring Brian or J.D. into the story? I haven't been able to decide and I'd like to know what my wonderful readers think. Just let me know and keep those great reviews up! Also, I know the chapter title is really stupid but I couldn't come up with another one. __


	5. The Damage

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Thanks for all the reviews, you guys are great!

Chapter Five

The Damage

The air was slightly cooler, Sam thought, as he stood by the open window on the first floor of the American Embassy. Jack had locked his son in the first available office he could find, thinking that would be enough to keep him from going to Laura and now, as Sam peered out the window, he rolled his eyes at the thought. Detaining him had been his mother's idea, after he had proceeded to attempt to walk right out the front door despite his father's command that there was no way in hell he was leaving the building; Sam knew he would have made it too, if his head injury hadn't started pounding right at that moment, causing everything in his vision to start to spin. Nearly passing out on the spot only further proved Jack and Lucy's point that there was no way he could even think about leaving and had made it easier for his father to force him into the office and lock the door.

Sam pushed the window open a little farther, he could definitely squeeze through now. The bushes beneath him were brittle and covered with a thin layer of frost but he figured they were better then dropping onto the concrete below. Sam stepped away from the window and turned to face the oak desk beside him, which hadn't been damaged in the earthquake and checked again to make sure that everything he had spread across the surface was everything he needed. The plastic first aid kit, a flash light and his radio, everything that he had managed to find before his mother and father went on their over-protective kick. The sudden movement caused a sharp flash of pain to slice through Sam's head and he figured being over-protective wasn't exactly misplaced in this situation.

When the pain had subsided, Sam put the radio and the first aid kit in his pockets, one of which still held Laura's engagement ring. Whenever he thought about possibly listening to his parents and letting someone else go to Laura, he remembered the engagement ring and how he sure as hell was going to give it to her. And he couldn't wait around here to do that, now could he?

Waiting to hear if Laura was all right was never an option, however, Sam knew that. Being away from her tore at his heart, much more then he had expected, and he knew, without a doubt, that he loved her with all his heart. And he couldn't risk the chance of not getting to tell her how deeply he really loved her, whether she knew or not, he needed to say it.

Sam put the flashlight in his pocket as well, figuring he wouldn't need it until he got to the building and turned back toward the window. He took a deep breath and swung one leg out so that he was straddling the sill; the pain in his head forcing him to remain still for a moment. He wished he'd taken another one of those pain pills his mother had given him. Everything seemed to turn upside down for a moment and Sam shut his eyes, holding his breath and willing the pain to stop; he was never going to get to Laura if he had stop every ten seconds.

Sam's eyes snapped open quickly when he heard a sound from the other side of the locked door of his temporary prison. The door knob was rattling and his father was saying his name as he started unlocking the door. "Damn." Sam mumbled. If his father caught him, then he'd never get out.

The door swung open just as Sam attempted to swing his other leg, nice and slow, out the window; nice and slow didn't work so well and he slipped off the sill and crashed into the brittle bushes below. For a moment, a wave of blackness over took him as his head hammered, feeling like it was about to explode. Slowly, the pain began to fade.

"Ow." Sam mumbled, opening his eyes and remaining where he was, on his side in the bushes. "That was a bad idea." He sighed and shut his eyes again, mentally checking over the rest of his body. He ached and he was sure he was bruised but he doubted anything had broken; the fall was only a few feet, but his head hurt like hell.

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Jack finally managed to get the door to the office unlocked and the door swung open, revealing an empty room. His eyes scanned the small area in front of him rapidly, attempting to locate Sam or any sign of him; the room was empty, there was no doubt about that.

His eyes settled on the open window and a curse escaped Jack's clinched teeth. "Sam..." He mumbled, attempting to turn around on his crutches and nearly falling to the ground. Jack managed to right himself and headed back into the hallway, wishing he could still ground his son. Either way, Sam was going to get an ear-full when he finally found him.

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When Sam finally opened his eyes again, his head wasn't pounding near as much and he found himself staring directly into the concerned face of his best friend, Brian Parks. He jumped in surprise at his friend's sudden appearance and lifted his head slowly, pushing himself into a sitting position. Brian was kneeling in front of him, looking more confused now then concerned; well, Sam could vouch for being confused as well, where had Brian come from? How long had his eyes been shut? One of the broken branches of the bush he had landed in jabbed him in the ribs so he knew, at least, that he was still outside the Embassy.

"Sam, what are you doing?" Brian questioned when he saw that his friend wasn't going to speak. "You've always been a little weird but..."

Sam gave a dry laugh. "Funny." He mumbled, shifting his position so that the branch wasn't digging into him anymore. "What are _you _doing here."

"I think I have the better question, since you're laying in a bush." Brian said, smiling slightly, though it looked like he didn't feel like smiling. He stood and helped Sam to his feet as well. "I heard about Laura."

Sam felt his heart skip a beat; had Brian heard something that he hadn't? "What about her?" He questioned breathlessly.

"About where she works." Brian classified. "And the earthquake." He added slowly, as though he wasn't quite sure that Sam was able to follow him.

Sam let out a slow breath, relieved that there had been nothing new about Laura or the building she was trapped in. While Brian watched him, he checked the three pieces of equipment that he had brought with him; he had landed on the radio and it was shattered in his pocket.

"As soon as I heard, I knew that you were going to go there." Brian continued. "I guess I was right." Sam didn't say anything, simply reached into his other pocket to check the flashlight.

Instead of pulling out the flashlight, however, Sam's fingers closed around the box which held Laura's engagement ring and he felt his heart lurch again. He pulled it out and stared at the tiny velvet box; Brian's eyes settled on it as well, and he placed a sympathetic hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'm sure Laura's all right." Brian said, even though he wasn't. He had known Laura a lot longer then Sam, since Laura's mother was a friend of his family, and she was like a sister to him.

Sam looked up at him. "I have to find out for sure, Brian." He said. "If you see my parents, tell them I know what I'm doing."

Brian gave him an incredulously look. "Whoa, wait a second, you think I'm going to let you go alone? Why do you think I came here?" Sam just stared at him, his head pounding too much to answer. "When I saw the report on television, I thought to myself, 'Sam is going to go over there and that fool is going to do something to get himself killed.'"

Sam rolled his eyes. "What makes you think that?" He was getting impatient now, didn't Brian know that Laura's life was in danger and every second they wasted talking was one second that she might not have?

Brian didn't answer right away, his eyes settling on the bandage on the side of Sam's head. "What happened to you?"

"I have a concussion."

Brian's eyes went wide. "A concussion." He repeated with a sigh. "See, I knew you were going to do something stupid."

Sam put Laura's engagement ring back into his pocket and started walking away from Brian and in the direction of the Rio Grande. "Where are you going?" Brian questioned, somehow hoping that now Sam had a concussion he wasn't actually going to attempt a rescue mission.

"To Laura." Sam answered as though it was Brian who had the head injury. "Where do you think?"

Brian quickly headed after him. "I was hoping to a doctor." He mumbled. "But I guess not." Sam didn't say anything, just kept walking, slow enough so that his head didn't force him to stop. "You're an idiot, you know that right?"

"That's what I've been told." Sam answered, looking over at his friend with a smile that he didn't feel. All he could think about was Laura, she was all that mattered.

Brian nodded and finally caught up with his friend; Sam stopped and looked over at his friend. "Where are you going?"

"With you." Brian answered. "What did you think? Someone has to keep you from killing yourself."

Sam rolled his eyes again and started walking, ignoring the amount of organized chaos around him as government officials struggled to create some sort of order and start up rescue missions for those that might be trapped as a result of the earthquake.

As they walked, Brian and Sam were silent, both thinking about Laura; Sam's hand remained in his pocket, his fingers closed tightly around the velvet ring box and he prayed that it wouldn't be too late to give Laura the ring inside.

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Together, Elsa and Kate managed to push the metal shelf off Laura and carry her out of the storeroom, setting her on the heavy counter just like Kate had suggested. Elsa bunched up several shirts and rested Laura's head upon them, wincing at how fast they became soaked with blood from the injury on the back of her head. Laura looked so pale, even in the dark, so still and that feared that Sam wasn't going to make it in time.

Kate was at a loss of what to do; this girl needed more help then she was prepared to give her but how was she supposed to tell Elsa that? Elsa seemed to sense that Laura was in dire need of better medical attention and held her friend's hand tightly. Kate cleared her throat and Elsa looked up. "We can use some shirts to try and bandage some of her injuries." She suggested and the other woman nodded, looking reluctant to leave Laura's side. But she did and the two of them headed into the back of the store.

Atop the counter, Laura mumbled something as she attempted to stir back into consciousness. Her fingers curled into limp fists as she attempted to open her eyes and break free from the horrible nightmare that was playing in her head, the terrible pain that filled her entire body. The pain was worse upon waking and Laura tried to shut her eyes again, to succumb to the darkness where pain wasn't so bad, but it seemed impossible; tears slipped from her eyes and she moaned, her entire head throbbing.

"Sam." Laura mumbled, stretching out her fingers as though she was searching for him. She didn't dare move anymore then that, for fear of making the pain even worse then it already was. "Sam." Her voice was louder this time and more tears fell from her cheeks.

Where was he? Laura didn't want to be alone, and she couldn't remember where she was or what had happened to her to make her feel like her entire body was on fire. Where was Sam? She wanted so much to wake up in bed beside him and forget this terrible nightmare but she knew that it wasn't a dream, no dream had ever felt this real.

From the back of the store, Elsa heard Laura's last cry for Sam and nearly dropped the pile of shirts that Kate had handed to her. Was it possible that Laura had already woken up again? She called to her friend and quickly headed back to the front of the shop, tossing the shirts aside.

Laura opened her eyes a little more, attempting to peer through the darkness, unsure what she was seeing. She heard a familiar voice call her name, knowing that it wasn't Sam, but attempting to turn her head in the direction of the voice. Extreme pain filled her body, sending flashes in front of her eyes, and Laura cried out, feeling as though every nerve in her body was being sliced into pieces. The back of her head was the worse and she could feel something warm and sticky on the back of her neck; it was blood, she knew, _her _blood.

Elsa took Laura's hand and the girl looked up at her, her wide eyes even wider with pain and confusion. "Elsa," Laura mumbled once she believed she had identified the face. "What's happening to me?" Tears stung her eyes but she didn't dare wipe them away, she didn't want to move ever again.

"There's been an earthquake." Elsa explained, holding Laura's hand tighter. "One of the shelves in the store room fell on your head." It sounded almost comical, but Elsa had never felt so far from laughing before in her life.

Laura's eyes fluttered closed for a moment as she attempted to let Elsa's words sink in; an earthquake? She remembered a little now, remembered the floor rumbling and shaking and the sounds of the building being stretched apart. An earthquake, it seemed so unlikely, so impossible...but that had been what she had thought about a super-storm that would create a new Ice Age.

Thinking about the ice sparked something in Laura's memory and her eyes snapped open again. "Sam." She said again and Elsa looked at her. "Where's Sam? Is he okay?"

Elsa was surprised; if she was suffering from a head injury, she wouldn't be worried about anyone but herself. "He's all right." She was glad that she was able to tell Laura something about the man that she loved. "He said that he's coming here, coming to get us."

Laura's eyes filled with tears again, this time for a completely different reason. Sam, her Sam was risking his life to come to her. As stupid as she thought the whole plan was, as much as she hated him for risking his life, putting himself in danger, she had never loved him more.

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In all the chaos caused by the earthquake, there was no one watching the bridge that stretched across the Rio Grande, no one to stop Sam and Brian from walking into Texas. The building where Laura worked wasn't far from the border and as they got closer, it was easier for Sam to see just how much damage had been caused by the earthquake. He didn't think there was a single building left standing.

And that included the Mall of Texas, the once proud and tall building where Laura had once worked. When the building came into view, Sam had a hard time believing that it was the same place where he had visited his smiling, laughing Laura so many times.

The building stood at a crooked angle, most of the windows broken out, metal, rebar and other assorted building materials jutting out at odd angles. The entire bottom foundation of the building had collapsed, something crumbled in upon itself, and the building itself appeared as though it had been split in half. Sam realized it was even worse seeing the destruction in person then on the television.

Brian looked over at his friend with uncertainty. "You sure you want to do this?" He questioned, already knowing what the answer would be. "Looks dangerous."

Sam nodded, he didn't care how dangerous it was. The woman he loved was inside and that was all that mattered.


	6. Laura

Chapter Six

Laura

In the lobby of the American Embassy, it wasn't difficult for Jack to stumble upon his wife and Janet, who were talking in low voices in the corner. The lobby was slowly growing more and more crowded with every second as rescue workers filed in awaiting their orders and concerned family members waited for news on their loved ones who might have been trapped in the earthquake.

Lucy turned around when Jack approached, seeing the look of concern on her husband's voice. "Jack, what's the matter?" She knew right away it had something to do with Sam.

"Sam's gone." Jack answered breathlessly, leaning against his crutches and attempting not to fall to the ground.

"Gone?" Lucy repeated and Janet looked on with silent concern. "What do you mean gone? Where did he go?" She didn't even have to ask, she knew all too well where her son had gone to.

Jack stumbled, balancing on one foot, sighing when he righted himself. "He must have just climbed out the window." He told his wife. "I can't believe he would be that stupid." Jack was more worried about his son then mad at him, knowing that the parental lecture could wait until Sam was safely back at the Embassy.

"What are we going to do?" Lucy questioned, wringing her fingers, something she did whether she was too worried to do anything else. "He shouldn't even be out of bed. What is he thinking?" She looked at Jack with large eyes filled with worry. "What are we going to do? He could get hurt even more...or...worse." Lucy wouldn't allow herself to think of just what 'or worse' really meant.

Jack wrapped his fingers tightly around the crutches. "I know, Lucy." He mumbled, sighing deeply and closing his eyes. His head was swimming, it was nearly impossible to think. "I'll go after him, stop him from going into that building."

"With a broken leg?" Janet piped in, skeptically. "Jack, I don't even think you'd be able to make it out the door."

Jack turned to look at her. "I can't just stand here and wait to see if he's all right. I have to-" He paused, realizing that his son had said the very same things to him earlier about Laura. He closed his eyes again; he knew what was driving Sam to do what he was doing, it was an act of love, pure and simple. Jack might not agree with what his injured was doing, and he wasn't going to let him go alone, but he understood his actions completely.

"I'll get in touch with one of the rescue workers." Jack mumbled, opening his eyes again and looking up at his wife. "I'll make sure Sam doesn't get hurt."

Lucy did nothing but nod, but there was so much more she wanted to say; she wasn't going to leave the safety of her baby, her only son, in the hands of someone she didn't know. But she understood where Jack was coming from, there was nothing more he could do. But that wasn't true for her.

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Laura sniffed, trying to blink her tears away, remaining as motionless as she possibly could; out of the corner of her eye, she saw Elsa and the doctor, Kate, tearing several shirts into thin, jagged, strips. She dreaded having the makeshift bandages wrapped around her, dreaded the movement that would come with that; all she wanted to do was go back to sleep, dream away the pain and imagine a better time with Sam.

At that moment, Laura wanted nothing more then to be with Sam, safely wrapped in his arms. It scared her to think that she might never see him again, that she could die here without being able to tell him that she loved him more then she had ever loved anyone in her entire life. Laura just hoped that he already knew, just in case she didn't get the chance to tell him, hoped that he knew how much she loved him.

_Don't think like that, _Laura's mind instructed, _of course you're going to get to see him again._

Laura shut her eyes and pictured Sam's face behind her eye lids, his soft, gentle, smiling face. She pictured the way he looked at her, eyes shining with his love for her. She hoped that her eyes looked the same way, that Sam could tell just how much she loved him every time she smiled, every time they kissed.

Tears pricked her eyes once again. _Sam, please hurry_.

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The glass revolving door that was once the entrance to the mall had been shattered and bent, twisted and frozen forever, buckling beneath the weight of the building falling upon it. Brian studied the door with a raised eyebrow and a worried expression; his heart was hopping around in his chest, telling him that going into that building was as sure as suicide. "Sam, are you really sure about this? Because this place _really _doesn't look safe." He said, turning to look at his friend. Sam was leaning against a chipped and cracked planting bed, eyes squeezed shut tightly, his head buried in his hands. "Sam? Are you all right?"

Sam didn't respond, holding onto his head tightly, using the planting bed for support; his entire world was spinning, head pounding, sending flashes of pain throughout his entire body. He just wanted to lay in a dark room and never get up again, not until all of the pain was gone without a chance of returning. Sam groaned, trying to block out the pain, trying to push away all thoughts of returning to the Embassy and waiting like his parents had suggested. But what would happen to Laura if he gave up? He didn't think he could live with himself if he didn't at least try and save her, if he never knew if she was all right or not.

"Sam?" Repeated Brian, stepping closer to his friend. "Sam, are you okay?" There was still no answer.

With another groan, Sam lifted his head, his hands falling limply to his sides; he looked over at Brian, noting his friend's concern and wished he could offer him even the smallest of smiles. But he had never felt less like smiling before in his entire life. "I'm fine." Sam mumbled, knowing that he was telling a lie that Brian could see right through.

"We should go back." Brian said, though there wasn't enough force in his words to make them a command. "Let someone else find Laura."

Sam thought about shaking his head, a flash of pain making him decide against it. "No." He said instead, his words carrying the force that Brian's lacked. "You don't have to come Brian, I'll go on my own, but there is no way that I'm just going to wait and see what happens."

Brian sighed, knowing as he had all along that there was no way he was going to be able to talk Sam out of his rescue. "Did I let you go alone when you went to that ship to get Laura's medicine? Hell no." He said, trying to put a strength in his voice that he didn't feel. "And there were wolves then, there aren't any wolves now. This is nothing." He tried to smile but there was no truth behind the gesture.

Sam looked at Brian, wanting to say something to the friend that he had known for most of his life but the right words wouldn't come. But he knew Brian understood, knew the words of true friendship that could never be spoken. "Let's go." Sam said instead, turning toward the bent entrance that Brian had been surveying earlier.

The time for doubts had passed and Brian followed Sam dutifully into the building, bowing his head to keep from knocking it against the jagged golden metal above him. And then they were inside.

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Laura cried out when Elsa attempted to lift her head, tears slipping from her cheeks freely, unnoticed; she bit down upon her tongue to keep from crying out again, since that only made the pain in the back of her head worse. Elsa held her head as gently as she could, whispering soothing words to her friend that feel on deaf ears as Kate prepared to press one of the makeshift bandages against the wound on the back of Laura's head.

Tears continued to fall from Laura's tightly shut eyes as she bit her tongue, so hard now that she could taste her own blood, trying to suppress any further cries. She was shaking from a mixture of fear and pain, anticipating the pain that would follow when Kate put pressure on the injury on the back of her head. She wished that Sam was here now, holding her and telling her that everything was going to be all right, that she was going to be all right. She had never wanted him more in her entire life.

Kate pressed the wadded piece of blue sweatshirt fabric against the bleeding fracture at the base of Laura's neck and the girl screamed, unable to stop herself, her entire body feeling on fire with pain. She could feel the pressure of Kate's hands against the tear in her bones, pushing against the jagged injury and further cracking them. Laura continued to cry even after Kate had released her and Elsa had gently rested her head back on the blood soaked tee-shirt that served as a pillow. It took Laura a while to realize that she was no longer crying for herself, but for Sam as well.

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Sam could feel his eyes growing wider with every second as he stared at the building before him, fixated on the complete destruction that had taken place. The lobby where he and Brian were standing was covered with rubble of all kinds, the benches and potted plants that had stood in the middle of the long aisles were buried beneath the debris. The second and third floors were snapped and broken, hanging down toward the lobby, merchandise strung everywhere, tangled among the twisted metal and plaster. The pipes had been wrenched apart, and water was streaming down from somewhere above, the drips echoing throughout the eerie silent building.

The building looked as though a bomb had gone off inside of it; everything that Sam could see was twisted and broken. Glass littered the floor from the display windows and the light fixtures and the building was almost completely dark, as though the midday sun outside had no affect on the world inside. The building creaked and groaned, the occasional sound of twisting metal breaking the silence as what was left of the mall continued to give way.

Brian let out a low whistle, his eyes continuing to scan the disaster before him. He didn't think he'd ever seen anything like it, not even in all the movies he had seen; those images hadn't even gotten close.

"Laura's on the eighth floor." Sam said suddenly, breaking the silence. It would do no more good to stand here and stare at what had already taken place. He could tell that the building wasn't going to remain standing for much longer, the sooner he got to Laura the better.

Brian peeled his eyes away from the wreckage and focused on Sam. "So, I guess the elevator's out then." He said, trying to lighten the atmosphere even the slightest bit, though he knew it was impossible.

Sam didn't even smile, just looked at him with a pained expression on his face; Brian knew that it wasn't just the pain from his head injury that caused his friend's eyes to look so sorrowful. It was nearly impossible to hold onto hope that Laura was all right after having seen the destruction that she would have had to live through.

"Come on." Sam said, starting toward one of the low hanging, broken levels. "Let's go."

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Elsa was leaning against the counter Laura was resting on when the building groaned and the floor beneath them shivered slightly. Laura opened her eyes and quickly scanned the area around her, looking for her friend. "What was that?" She questioned, her voice hushed and low.

A tremor, not quite as strong as the actual earthquake, shook the floor, knocking over what hadn't been knocked lose during the first quake; the building groaned, metal squealed as it was further twisted apart. The already cracked floor beneath them stretched further, the ground beneath the counter dropping a few inches before coming to rest against another jagged piece of the floor. Laura cried out as the counter dropped, resting at an incline and nearly causing her to slip off; she wrapped her fingers around the edge of the counter to keep from falling.

The shaking ended nearly as abruptly as it had started, the ground still once again. "Aftershock." Elsa breathed, releasing her own hold on the counter and stepping back. The floor beneath the counter looked unstable, another shake would end it falling into the floors below. She could see the bottom levels through the cracks around the counter and swallowed, taking a deep breath. "Maybe," Elsa started, looking over at Kate who was trying to calm her children. "We should move Laura."

Kate looked in their direction. "No, moving her would only make it worse." She said, holding her boys close to her.

Elsa looked back at Laura, who was taking slow, deliberate breathes, trying to calm her racing heart. She sighed as she watched her friend, trying to slow her own heart rate; she hoped that Sam got here soon.

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When the ground began to shake again, Sam and Brian were halfway up the sloping piece of floor that had once belonged on the third level; Sam reached out and grabbed onto a twisted piece of rebar, holding on tightly as the piece of ground shook, threatening to send them back to the lobby. Brian reached up, trying to grab onto something solid and only managed to wrap his finger's around Sam's ankle.

The shaking ended quickly but Sam remained holding onto the rebar long after the ground had become still again. The mall was filled with the sounds of groaning and twisting metal and he feared that the floors above them would come crashing down.

There was a loud groaning sound and the screech of metal as one of the higher floors was wrenched free and crashed down onto the floor below it. Sam prayed that it wasn't the floor that Laura was on.

When the mall had become silent once again, Sam continued maneuvering up the slab toward the next semi-solid level. Once they were off the sloping floor, Brian turned to look at his friend. "How are we going to know which level Laura's on?"

Sam sighed. "Keep looking until we find her." His head was pounding, his eyesight blurry and he squinted in order to focus. He looked at Brian, wincing in spite of the dim light, waiting for the world to stop spinning.

Brian nodded. "Okay." He sighed. "Let's keep looking then."

The floor they were on now yielded nothing but a pair of broken, dead bodies buried beneath ruble. Sam averted his eyes as soon as he was sure that neither of the corpses were Laura, his heart hammering in his chest even after he knew it wasn't the girl that he loved; his mouth went dry at the thought of stumbling upon her body, of being too late.

The sixth level was nothing but a pile of debris and ruble, with twisted metal jutting out through the rock and plaster. Sam and Brian easily, but slowly, climbed the pile as though they were rock climbing, something Sam had only done once in his life.

A mangled staircase dangled down from the level above, providing a treacherous way to reach the floor where Laura was, if Sam's count was correct. Brian followed slowly behind his friend, placing his feet wherever Sam placed his, holding tightly to the twisted railing that was still somehow attached to the staircase. Most of the stairs dangled above the pile of debris, providing a long drop should either of them slip or loose their footing.

Sam reached the top of the staircase, helping Brian onto the nearly solid looking level they had come to; the ground was jagged with cracks dicing it up, and he knew that if they took too long or stepped in the wrong spot that the whole thing would collapse beneath them.

Brian sat on the ground beside his friend, sighing and letting his heart stop pounding; Sam shut his eyes, willing the pain out of his head, praying that he would be able to keep it together a while longer, long enough to find Laura and get the hell out of here. The pain passed but the dizziness didn't and Brian had to help him to his feet.

When the ground seemed more solid then it had seconds ago, Sam opened his eyes again and looked at his friend. "Okay, Laura should be somewhere on this level."

"How do you know?" Brian questioned. All of the levels seemed blended into one as far as he was concerned.

"I've been keeping track." Sam answered. "At least, I'm pretty sure this is the eighth floor."

Brian couldn't argue with such logic; Sam seemed so certain that it seemed impossible to argue, even if he _was _wrong. Sam took a minute, trying to get his bearings, attempting to remember which direction the clothes shop was; he finally decided that right was the best way to go, since the left looked a little less safe.

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Laura opened her eyes, feeling more heavy and groggy then she had when she had last closed them, shortly after the first aftershock. She wondered what that meant, feeling like she weighed a hundred more pounds then she really did, her head feeling like it was made of metal. _It means you're dying, _whispered the voice in the back of her head that always made her assume the worst of things. It was the same voice that told her she was going to die without ever seeing Sam again. _Soon you won't be able to open your eyes, then- _Laura attempted to shut the voice out, concentrating instead on the reason she had opened her eyes in the first place.

Voices, she had heard voices coming from somewhere; they sounded far away but Laura wondered if that was just because she was groggy, unsure of anything anymore. Had she even heard the voices? She was certain she had because she could hear them now and they sounded closer.

Elsa, who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor close to the counter with her head buried in her hands, opened her eyes slowly as well. She lifted her head, looking in the direction that she had imagined she had heard voices. It could only be her imagination, she reasoned, because no one would be stupid enough to come into a building that was falling apart with every second. Unless that person was-

"Sam?" Laura's voice, quiet and hoarse, caused Elsa to look away from the door blocked by the metal wire and over at her friend. Laura was looking through the wire as well, squinting her eyes and looking as though she was trying to pull herself into a sitting position. "Sam." She repeated, voice louder but sounding more stressed now.

Elsa got to her feet and gingerly walked closer to the counter; the floor beneath her groaned, feeling unstable and she remained where she was, unwilling to take another step. "Laura, what's the matter?" She questioned, unwilling to get her hopes up because the person dying of a head injury heard voices as well.

Laura's eyes found Elsa. "I heard someone." She answered, voice quiet again as though it hurt just to speak. "It could be Sam."

Elsa could see just how badly Laura wanted to believe that she had heard the voice of the boy she loved and she wanted just as badly to have it be true. "Laura, I didn't-" She stopped herself from finishing her sentence because she had, she had heard voices.

Laura's gaze returned to the metal gate, the door to their prison. "Sam!" She shouted, tears springing unbidden in her eyes, head wound screaming in pain. A single sob escaped her lips and she shut her eyes again, laying her head against the damp tee-shirt.

For a moment, the building was completely silent and Elsa couldn't help but hold her breath, hoping for an answer. Laura knew that she would be hoping as well if she wasn't utterly exhausted by the pain coursing through her body. _You are dying_, the voice, the Enemy Voice, reminded her and Laura didn't have the energy to tell it otherwise.

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Sam's heart skipped a beat when he heard someone call his name through the silence, her delicate and pain-filled voice echoing off the walls and rubble. He would recognize that voice anywhere and he found himself unable to speak, his mouth suddenly dry, heart beginning to hammer in his chest. It was Laura; Laura had called his name, his Laura was still alive.

Brian looked over at him, as though attempting to read his reaction, unwilling to speak in case Laura would call out something else. Sam's eyes scanned the crumbling stores, trying to figure out just where Laura's voice had come from. The echo had made it nearly impossible to figure the exact location and he felt lost for a moment, knowing he was close to something he might never have.

The building began to groan again, more floors falling, collapsing upon each other, and Sam shouted Laura's name as loudly as he could, hoping he was heard above the crumbling floors.

The building fell silent once more and Sam waited for Laura to answer, heart hammering wildly, waiting to hear her voice once more.

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Even over the twisting and crumbling of the building, Laura heard Sam's voice and her eyes snapped open, quickly trying to find him even though she knew he wasn't near enough to see. Elsa's head turned in the direction that Sam had shouted from and attempted to peer through the unsettled dust created by the drywall and thought she could just barely make out the forms of two people.

"Sam." Laura called out but her voice was no longer loud enough to be heard. It was Sam, her Sam, he had come for her. She tried to sit up, tried to see him but the sharp pain in the back of her head kept her from even moving.

Elsa got to her feet and carefully navigated across the floor toward the twisted metal gate blocking their exit. "Sam!" She shouted, pressing her face against the bent mesh, eyes straining. She could see Sam but just barely, standing beside his friend Brian, both of them trying to figure out where the shouts were coming from. Elsa began banging on the wire with her palms with as much force as she could, ignoring the jagged metal that cut into her palms.

Sam looked in the direction of the rattling metal, squinting his eyes to better see through the dim corridor; he saw someone standing several yards away, banging on a metal gate of some kind. Without a word to Brian, he hurried down the broken tile floor, ignoring the pain in his head, until he reached the twisted mesh gate.

It was Elsa banging on the metal and Sam's eyes instantly gazed past her, searching the darkness for Laura, unable to find her through the shadows. He felt his heart skip and he looked back at Elsa. "Where's Laura?" He asked, studying her dust and sweat streaked face through the metal. "Is she all right?"

At the sound of his voice, Laura felt warm tears fill her eyes once again; Sam was here, and if she died, at least she wouldn't die alone. _You are _not _going to die_, she told herself as forcefully as she could manage. _Sam is here now, everything is going to be all right. _"Sam." Laura whispered, her voice thin and scratchy. "Sam, I'm here."

Sam's eyes left Elsa's face once again, easily finding Laura now; she was laying upon what he guessed was a checkout counter, her fingers wrapped weakly around the edge to keep herself from slipping since the counter was sloping now, the ground beneath it at an incline. Even from where he stood, Sam could see that she was hurting, too weak to lift her head, to even move, her skin pale and waxy. "Laura," Sam wished that he could be with her now, to hold her against him. "Baby, are you all right?"

Laura wasn't sure how to answer his question; no, she was very far from all right but she didn't want to worry Sam. She remained silent for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to answer, what to say. She just wanted to get the hell out of this building and that was what she told him.

Sam looked back at Elsa. "How does this thing open?" He questioned, wrapping his fingers around the twisted metal. He gave an experimental push but the gate only groaned and his head began to pound once again.

"It only opens from the outside." Elsa answered. "But I don't know where the key is." She sighed, feeling utterly hopeless for a moment; she shut her eyes and thought, trying to figure out how to open this metal gate. Her eyes snapped open suddenly and she turned around, eyes finding Kate through the darkness. "Kate, I need your help." She stated, walking over to where the woman was sitting with her two boys and the teenage girls. Elsa looked at the girl, the one that hadn't been injured in the earthquake. "You too, what's your name?"

"Sydney." The girl supplied, looking at Elsa as though she couldn't figure out what was going on. "How can I help?" Her voice was shaky, as though she dreaded the answer.

"We're going to lift that shelf again." Elsa answered, looking over at the heavy wooden shelf that had used to force the door to the storeroom open. "And we're going to try and break the gate open."

Kate got to her feet and Sydney did as well, leaving her friend behind, following the older women toward the shelf, which still lay abandoned in the doorway of the storeroom. Sam watched them for a moment before settling on Laura once again; she was staring straight up at the ceiling, as though shifting her gaze took too much energy.

Laura seemed to sense that he was staring at her, just as she always seemed to do, and her gaze traveled toward him. It felt so good to Sam standing there, it made everything seem almost all right again. "Sam, I'm so glad you came." Laura told him, feeling like she was going to cry again. "I love you."

Sam pressed his face against the metal gate, her whispered words tugging on his heart. "I love you too." He said. "It's going to be all right, Laura, you'll be all right."

Laura knew it was easy for him to say that, he didn't know how badly she was injured; Elsa hadn't told her what Kate had said about her injuries, and that was how she knew they were bad. She wanted to say something more to Sam but she knew that would only worry him, causing him to do something stupid and rash that could get him hurt.

Elsa, Kate and Sydney managed to lift the shelf, straining to keep it off the ground; Elsa's fingers started to ache again where the shelf had been dropped upon them earlier and she realized that she had no idea how long ago that had been, how much time had passed since the earthquake. Kate had taken the rear of the shelf and Elsa and Sydney balanced out the sides, leaving the front free for slamming against the gate.

Brian tugged on Sam's arm, forcing him to move away from the gate, even though that meant losing sight of Laura. Sam's head was pounding, the floor was beginning to spin again and he shut his eyes, willing himself to hold on long enough to get to Laura and get the hell out of here.

The heavy shelf knocked into the gate, causing the metal to twist and rattle, but it didn't give way; Laura watched them out of the corner of her eye, hoping that Elsa's idea would work. Elsa ordered them to back up and hit the door again, harder this time and they did was she said, the metal beginning to bend beneath the weight of the shelf.

As they prepared to hit the gate again, Laura heard the floor beneath them begin to groan again, the split pieces of ground beginning to grind against each other. Her heart began to speed up, her palms beginning to sweat as she prayed that the floor wasn't about to collapse beneath them.

Elsa heard the building begin to groan again but she tried to ignore it as the shelf slammed as the metal gate once again. The metal squealed as it twisted apart, the shelf going through the hole they had created and dropping to the ground. When the shelf landed on the unstable ground, the building groaned and the ground began to shiver and she knew there was another aftershock on the way.

Laura felt the ground beneath the heavy counter start to give way, the counter slipping farther and farther downward; she could see the floors beneath her and held onto the counter, hoping that the aftershock would end before the counter fell.

"Sam!" She cried and Sam's eyes opened instantly. "Sam!" Laura's voice was more panicked then it had been before and he hurried toward the broken gate, holding onto the wall to keep from being knocked off his feet by the shaking ground.

Laura was still holding onto the counter but she knew that she was going to fall, knew that the entire floor beneath her was going to collapse and she was going to go with it. Her wide, panicked eyes lifted from the holes in the ground and found Sam; he was struggling to climb over the shelf, pushing aside the jagged metal, trying to get to her.

Sam ignored the flashes of pain filling his head as he stumbled over the shelf and into the clothing store where Laura had worked only hours ago. The ground toward the side of the store, which held the checkout counter and the storeroom, crumbled, collapsing onto the floors below. Sam's heart froze in his chest as Laura disappeared from view, falling to the floors below.


	7. The Useless Rescue

Chapter Seven

The Useless Rescue

Sam's eyes remained fixed on the spot where Laura had disappeared only moments earlier, as though he still expected to be able to pick her out among the shadows. But there was no denying it, Laura had gone with the rest of the floor and he was staring at nothing. His mouth was dry again, his heart seeming to forget to bet as he felt his legs begin to buckle and his head begin to spin. He must have stumbled, because the next thing Sam knew, Brian was gentling helping him sit against the jagged wall, asking him if he was all right in a voice that sounded far away.

Elsa was shouting something from inside the clothing store but her voice, too, was far away and Sam had a hard time making out her words. But he knew that she was yelling about Laura, making everything even more real. Sam blinked, trying to clear his head and get everything in order but his head was pounding and he had to squeeze his eyes shut once more. But all he could see was the look on Laura's face seconds before she disappeared, her eyes wide with fear; she had been expecting him to save her, to get there just before it was too late and pull her out of harm's way, just as he always did. _I wasn't fast enough_, he thought, balling his hands into fists. _I couldn't save her, I was too late. I let her down._

Sam opened his eyes again, lifting his head and struggling to get to his feet. Brian looked at him with surprise on his face. "Where are you going?" He questioned, standing up as well. "Sam...?"

"To Laura." Sam answered, putting his hand against the side of the building when he felt his legs begin to buckle again. He didn't know if there was still a chance that she was alive, but he wasn't going to leave this building without knowing for sure. And he certainly wasn't going to leave her inside with the other abandoned, unidentifiable corpses.

Brian's eyes went wide. "Sam, but..." He trailed off, searching for the right words. "Sam," his voice was steady as he looked into his friend's eyes. "Laura's dead." He had seen the floor collapse too, taking the girl down with it, and knew that there was no way anyone could have survived a fall like that, not with the debris falling from above. And, he knew that Laura had been injured before.

Sam glared at Brian with such a fire in his eyes that Brian thought about taking a step back; he had never seen such a look on his friend's face before. "She is not dead." He declared through clenched teeth, looking for a moment as though he believed those words without a doubt. "Laura is not dead." Sam wondered if repeating the words over and over again would make them true. It seemed impossible to him that Laura could be dead.

Brian didn't have to heart to protest, but he hoped that Sam was right.

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Lucy tapped her foot impatiently on the packed dirt outside a sun-bleached bungalow as she waited for her knock to be answered. The sun was hot on her back in spite of the light snow that was falling and she pushed her hair off her skin, a sigh escaping her lips; she didn't have time to wait around.

The door finally swung open and a young boy, no more then twelve, peeked out at Lucy. Even though she had only met this boy once, she didn't have a hard time remembering him, since Tori Walters looked just like his older brother. "Hi Dr. Hall." The boy greeted, coming out from behind the door once he had recognized her.

"Hey Tori." Lucy smiled at him. "Is J.D. home?" Tori nodded and scampered off, disappearing back inside to retrieve his brother. Lucy crossed her arms over her chest as her impatience returned and she found herself tapping her foot once again.

The door was nudged open again and J.D. Walters appeared, looking as though he had just woken up even though it was nearly three in the afternoon. "Hi Dr. Hall." He motioned for her to come inside but Lucy remained where she was.

"J.D., I'm sure that you've seen the news reports on the earthquake." She began without any further introduction. "So, I'm sure that you know that Laura is in one of the buildings that collapsed." J.D.'s eyes went wide as though everything she was saying to him was new information. "Frankly," Lucy pursed her lips, "I need your help."

J.D.'s eyes remained wide. "My help?" He repeated. "With what?"

"Sam went to that building to get Laura." Lucy explained. "He has a concussion, but he wouldn't stay and what for the rescue workers to get to the building. So-"

"So you want me to go to the building to get Sam." J.D. finished, trying to process the doctor's words. Going to rescue Laura with a concussion was just something that Sam would do and he wasn't surprised in the least.

Lucy debated for a moment. "Not exactly. I want you to come with me to the building to get Sam." She clarified.

J.D. raised an eyebrow. "You, Dr. Hall?" Lucy narrowed her eyes and he instantly changed his tone. "Sure." He agreed quickly. He turned to go back into the house, then paused, turning to look at Lucy with an uncertain look on his voice. "What exactly are we talking about here? A mission of certain death into a collapsed building or just a routine rescue mission?"

Lucy couldn't resist. "Certain death. Definitely."

J.D. sighed. "I should have known." He mumbled. "You Halls are all the same."

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Elsa scrambled over the cracked shelf, joining the others outside the clothing store. Her eyes were wide, and they settled upon Sam's face. "What are we going to do?" She asked breathlessly. "Laura-" She stopped herself when Sam's eyes clouded. She didn't know what to say, didn't want finish her sentence for fear of giving him false hope; she knew just as well as the others that there was no way Laura could have survived.

Sam cleared his throat. "We're not going to do anything." He said, looking at the group of survivors that had emerged from the shop. It tore his heart into pieces not to see Laura's face among them. "You're going to go with Brian, out of the building and to the Embassy, they have a hospital set up there." Brian was watching him closely. "I'm going to find Laura."

"No, Sam." Brian said, putting his hand on his friend's arm, a gesture that was meant to be comforting. "You can't stay in this building anymore, you need to get to the hospital yourself. Laura's dead, there's no use..."

Sam pushed Brian's hand away and grabbed the collar of his friend's jacket, shoving him back into the wall and staring into his eyes. "Laura is not dead." He hissed, his voice low. He let go of his friend and turned away, staring down at the cracked floor. In spite of what he had seen, he could not believe this his beautiful, sweet, perfect Laura was dead.

Brian watched his friend for a moment, remaining with his back against the wall. "Sam," He began, realizing he had never addressed his friend with such force in his voice. "I loved Laura too, she was like a sister to me but what good is it going to do, you killing yourself for nothing? And you know that's going to happen if you try to get to her, you can barely stand. Do you think Laura would have wanted-"

Sam whirled to face him once again. "Do not talk to me about what Laura would have wanted." He said and Brian fell silent. "I'm not asking you to come with me this time; I don't need you now, Brian."

Brian and Sam stared at each other for a long moment, silence hanging heavy between them, speaking in ways that words never could. Finally, Brian shifted his weight and turned to look at Elsa and the other survivors who had remained silent through the confrontation. "All right, we can go back down the way we came up." He said, not looking over at Sam as he spoke. If Sam wanted to kill himself while trying to find his dead girlfriend, then it wasn't his concern.

Sam didn't look at Brian as he passed, carrying on of Kate's twin boys, leading the group toward the nearly dilapidated staircase they had climbed up earlier. Elsa paused and turned back to look at him. "Sam," She seemed indecisive. "Just be careful." She said finally, turning away and following the others before he had the chance to reply.

Sam watched them until they had disappeared and found himself praying that they would be all right, that they would make it out of the building even if he didn't. He looked away, peering into the dark clothing store as though there was still something inside of there that he hadn't seen, some clue that would led him to something he didn't even know he was looking for.

But there was nothing inside of the store aside from broken shelves and discarded merchandise. There was no sign that Laura had ever been there and Sam wished that she hadn't, that she had never come to work that day and was still safely down in Mexico with them. He wished he hadn't waited so long to ask her to marry him, wished that he had proposed that very morning when they were still together and happy.

_Listen to yourself, _Sam thought as he slowly climbed over the shelf, holding onto the jagged metal as his head spun, _you're thinking as though she really is dead. _But, as much as he loved Laura and prayed that she was alive, it was getting even more difficult to talk himself into believing that he was going to see her alive once again.

Sam entered the store, which was as eerily silent as the rest of the building and paused, giving his head a chance to stop spinning. He thought of Laura, the way that her eyes always seemed to lit up when she saw him, or how she always smiled mischievously whenever she was planning something that she wanted to keep a secret from him but always ended up telling him anyway. And as he stood, alone in the middle of a crumbling shop, Sam realized that his eyes were filled with tears; he couldn't bare the thought of never seeing Laura smile again, of never hearing her laugh, knew that his heart couldn't take it. He had to find Laura, that was the only thing that mattered.

Blinking his tears away, Sam carefully navigated his way around the cracks and holes in what remained in the floor, attempting to make it to the largest section missing, the hole that Laura had fallen through. He squinted his eyes, vision foggy because of the pounding in his head, unable to see anything through the darkness.

"Laura." Sam whispered, his voice choked with emotion, praying like he never had before that somehow he would get an answer. There was no answer, the building remained silent.

Sam knelt at the edge of the hole, shifting his weight when the ground beneath him started to give way and crumble. He couldn't see Laura or where she had fallen to, it was impossible even to see what was left of the floor below. He thought he just barely make out twisted rebar and chunks of plaster but it didn't capture his attention for long. He wanted to see Laura, he _needed _to see her, needed to know that somehow Brian was wrong, that she wasn't dead after all.

By the time Sam realized that the floor was going to crumble beneath him, it was too late and he was falling toward the level below. The second he hit the ground below, everything was swallowed by darkness.

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Bed rest had never suited Jack Hall and soon, he was up, hobbling around the lobby of the American Embassy, not getting any better at balancing himself on his crutches. People were going in and out of the glass Embassy doors, government officials and worried family members alike, leaving as soon as they got an answer to whatever question passed their lips. As the time passed, Jack saw more and more people leave with tears in their eyes or running down their cheeks and he knew that some of the rescue missions hadn't gone as many people would have hoped. He just prayed that workers hadn't already come back with bad news about the building where Laura worked, the building that his son had surely gone to.

Jack pushed all thoughts of Sam being crushed by the collapsing building aside as he scanned the crowd for his wife. Lucy was usually around somewhere, tending to those that needed it, always in somebody's way because she was taking care of someone. But now, he couldn't see her; perhaps she had gone back upstairs to the actual hospital level to look after her young patients. Jack hoped that she hadn't because he knew the elevator was out of service and there was no way he could make it up the stairs.

Jack's eyes settled on Janet, who was sitting beside the makeshift mattress Jason had been set upon, talking to her fiancé, who was just barely conscious. He managed to hop over to them, nearly stumbling over Jason's out stretched legs. Janet reached out the steady him. "Have you seen Lucy?" He questioned as soon as he wasn't wobbling.

Janet shook her head. "No. The last time I saw her she was with you." She said, looking down at Jason, who was looking at his boss. "Has Lucy been by to check on you?" She asked him.

Jason told them that he hadn't seen Lucy all day. "Where could she have gone?" He asked, looking at Jack.

Jack thought about an answer to his question, his mind going over all the places that she could have gone to. Then the answer hit him and he sighed, groaning beneath his breath; he knew that he shouldn't be surprised that Lucy had more then likely gone after their son. Daring and ultimately stupid rescues seem to run in the family.

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When Sam opened his eyes again, the first thing he was aware of was how his entire body seemed to be throbbing with pain, from top to bottom, he felt like one giant bruise. He groaned, resisting the urge to close his eyes again, realizing that the entire right side of his head was slick and damp with blood. He touched the spot on his head gingerly where he had been hurt from the first earthquake and found that there were several of gashes and bumps to add to the bleeding.

Sam lifted his head, looking around him, trying to figure out where he was and what shape he was in. Aside from his pounding, bleeding head, he didn't think he had been hurt too badly in the fall; at least, nothing was broken. He had landed in a nest of debris, chunks of plaster and twisted metal had been the only things to break his fall. Sam knew he was lucky, considering where he had landed; he could have fallen on one of the pieces of metal.

Sam groaned as he pulled into a sitting position, his back aching, head spinning. He waited a minute, to see if the spinning would stop but he didn't and figured that it wouldn't until he actually laid down in an actual bed and didn't get up for at least forty-eight hours. But that wasn't going to happen until he found Laura.

Thinking of Laura made Sam slowly check his pockets, making sure that her engagement ring hadn't fallen out during the fall. The box was still in his pocket, along with the miniature flashlight, which he pulled out and twisted on. He kept his fingers closed around the velvet box, still hoping that he would be able to slip to the ring on Laura's finger.

Sam shown the beam of the flashlight around the building, the light bouncing on the crumbled fronts of stores, on split beams hanging from the ceiling, on other piles of debris. He slowly got to his feet, holding onto his head with one hand, still shining the flashlight with the other.

The beam of the light settled on something he recognized from the clothing shop: the heavy wooden counter that Laura had been resting upon when the floor had collapsed. Sam's heart starting to hammer in his chest, almost painfully, as he played the beam around the counter, hoping to find Laura.

Laura's pale and bloody face was illuminated by the beam, and Sam saw that she was laying beside the desk, her eyes shut, skin an unnatural pale color. Sam hurried forward, but he stumbled over something and went crashing to the ground, nearly impaling his hand on a piece of rebar.

The flashlight dropped to the ground, rolling away from him, the beam bouncing wildly around the building before coming to rest on Laura once again. Sam lifted his head, looking at her, praying for a reaction, any reaction from her.

"Laura!" Shouting her name increased the pain in his head but Sam would have shouted it a million times over if it would have caused her to open her eyes. He got to his feet, picking up the flashlight again and slowly making his way toward her.

Sam called her name once again but it was no use, Laura remained motionless.


	8. The Proposal

Chapter Eight

The Proposal

Sam felt as though his entire body was breaking into thousands of pieces, starting with his heart, as he stared at Laura, motionless and pale, but still beautiful. He dropped to his knees a few feet from where she lay and buried his face in his hands, still trying to fight the knowledge that he was being forced to accept. Laura was dead, but it still seemed so impossible that his breaking heart couldn't seem to accept it.

"Laura," Sam mumbled, eyes filling with tears once again. This time, he didn't stop them from falling. "I'm sorry, it's my fault, I should have been there." He lifted his head, looking at the still body of the woman he had wanted to marry. He tried to imagine life without Laura, without seeing her smile everyday, without hearing her life whenever he told a joke just to make him feel like it was funny. He tried to imagine not being able to come home and find one of Laura's latest attempts at cooking burning in the kitchen with Laura preparing to pull out the fire extinguisher. Sam couldn't imagine not waking up on weekends to the sound of Laura singing from the shower, her beautiful voice rising over the sound of the water, with him listening, captivated, until she came out and he pretended to be asleep because he knew that having someone listen to her sing embarrassed Laura.

Sam knew that he couldn't even begin to comprehend what life was going to be like without his beautiful Laura. It seemed like some horrible dream, her being dead, a dream that he couldn't begin to understand. It seemed impossible and cruel, Laura being dead at only eighteen, not even two years after he had first seen her, an adorably shy transfer from Boston.

"I remember," Sam said out loud, as though he could somehow reach Laura wherever she was, somehow bring her back to him. "When you came into calculus class and the teacher introduced you and you wouldn't look anyone in the eye. You just stared at the floor and I couldn't take my eyes off you. I thought you were so beautiful." He wiped several tears off his cheeks, still watching Laura, praying for any sort of reaction, any sign that she wasn't dead. But she was still pale and motionless, something that tore into his heart even farther.

Sam took a deep breath and sighed, burying his face in his hands once more, her palms becoming wet with tears and blood. He closed his eyes, remembering that day with perfectly clarity, because that was one of the most important days in his life, it was the day that would led to every other day, including this one.

"And after class," Sam continued, forcing the words out of his mouth, though he found himself unable to stop talking. "I was going to try and talk to you, but you made me so nervous that I couldn't come up with anything to say. So I was standing outside calculus, waiting for you to get done talking to the teacher, practicing what I was going to say to you. Nothing seemed right, everything sounded so stupid." He could see himself, standing outside the classroom, pacing around and talking to himself. "I guess I must have been talking out loud because you came out of the class and said-"

"Do you always talk to yourself?" Laura's voice, hoarse and low, was such a surprise that Sam jumped, his head snapping up instantly, sending flashes of pain through his body.

Sam managed to ignore the pounding in his head as he turned in the direction he believed he had heard Laura's voice; was it possible that he had just imagined hearing her? Would his mind really be that cruel?

Laura was watching him through half-closed eyes, a wane smile on her lips, skin still chalky white, aside from her neck which was crimson with blood. She hadn't moved much, still resting uncomfortably among the rubble, but it was undeniable to Sam: she was alive.

Sam attempted to get to his feet, wincing and suddenly dizzy, deciding instead to crawl the few remaining feet over to where Laura lay, knocking aside the rubble and debris as it bumped and cut into his knees. As soon as he reached her, Sam pulled Laura into his arms, oblivious to pain that raced through his body, holding her against him was enough to make everything else disappear.

Laura wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing her face into his chest, ignoring the pain as it filled her entire body, tears running freely down her cheeks. It seemed almost too good to be true, she and Sam together after everything that had happened, both bleeding and worse for wear but alive. After the floor had collapsed, she had thought that she was never going to see Sam again, that she was going to die without being able to tell him just how much she loved him. But he had found her again, and she was going to get a second chance.

Sam was kissing her, on her lips, her cheeks, her forehead, and Laura held onto him tightly, as though she was afraid that letting go would mean possibly losing him again. "I thought I had lost you." He said, holding her against him gently. "Don't ever do that to me again." Laura couldn't help but smile through her pain and tears. "I love you so much, Laura." It felt good to be able to say that to her.

"I love you too." She told him, her tears warm on her cheeks. She looked up at him, her eyes shining with tears. "I thought I was never going to see you again, Sam." The thought caused her to shiver and she pulled him against her once again.

Sam gently kissed the top of her head. "I would never leave you, baby, I promise." He said, his arms wrapped tightly around her. Laura was still shaking and he gently stroked her head, a gesture that she usually found comforting. However, when his fingers found the tender, broken and bleeding spot on the back of her neck, she cried out in pain and Sam instantly pulled away, shocked to see that his fingers were already damp with blood. "Jesus, Laura," he said, trying to get a better look at her injury. "Are you all right? What happened?"

Laura sniffed, laying her cheek against his shoulder, wishing that the pain in her head was just go away. "Elsa said one of the metal shelves in the store room landed on me." She answered when the pain had started to lessen, though not by much. She bit her bottom lip to keep from crying out again when Sam gently pushed aside her hair. "That hurts." She told him, unable to keep some of the harshness out of her voice. Sam let her hair fall back into place.

"That looks bad, Laura." Sam said, a sharp flash of pain reminding him of his own injuries. "We need to get out of here. Are you hurt anywhere else?"

Laura tried to figure out where she _wasn't _hurt as she looked up at Sam, staring at the bloody gashes on the side of his face as though she hadn't really noticed them before. "What about you?" She questioned, her fingers gently brushing against his cheek.

Sam sighed which only increased the pain in his head, enjoying the way Laura's cold fingers felt against his skin. "It happened when I was still in my dad's office." He told her. "My mom says I have a concussion."

Laura's eyes went wide. "A concussion?" She repeated incredulously. "You should be in the hospital, Sam." She told him, brow knitting with concern for him, her own injuries momentarily forgotten.

"Look who's talking." Sam replied, even managing to smile slightly. "Did you expect me just to leave you here?" His voice was nothing but serious now.

Laura's eyes filled with tears once again and she kissed him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders once again. Sam held her just as tightly, never wanting to let go of her, unwilling to go through the heartbreak of possibly losing her again. "I love you, Sam." She whispered, rested her head on his shoulder once again.

"I love you too." Sam said, pulling away from her suddenly, causing Laura to give him a confused look. "That reminds me." He reached into his pocket. "This probably isn't the best time but..." he pulled out the velvet ring box and opened it. "Laura Chapman, will you marry me?" He didn't want to take the chance of not being able to get another opportunity to ask her.

Laura's eyes went wide and everything else about that moment, the pain, the surroundings, was forgotten. Without hesitation she answered, "Of course Sam." She had never thought that the love of her life would propose to her at eighteen in the middle of a building that was likely to collapse at any time, both of them suffering from head injuries, both of them never having been more in love then they were at that moment.

Sam smiled, looking slightly relieved as though he expected her to say no, and slipped the ring onto her finger. Laura kissed him again, looking down at her ring, which somehow managed to glisten in spite of the lack of light in the building. She smiled and looked back up at him. "It's beautiful."

"You're beautiful." Sam told her, kissing her again.

Laura laughed, an action that surprised her given the circumstances, and pulled away, swatting him on the shoulder. "You're so cheesy." She smiled.

Sam smiled back. "I've been told that girls love cheesy."


	9. The Important Things

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The reviews have been so great! You guys actually thought that I would kill Laura, please, I could never do such a thing. Anyway, thanks for the reviews, keep 'em coming! There are only two chapters left, so keep reviewing!

Chapter Nine

The Important Things

It was only when Janet realized that Jack was going to the collapsing building just past the Mexican border with or without her that she agreed to go with him. The man had hobbled halfway out of the building before she realized that he was serious, causing her to wonder why she hadn't realized this before; of course Jack was serious about going to get both Sam and his wife, who no doubt had the same idea. He had walked through nearly ten feet of snow to New York so walking to a collapsing building with a broken leg was nothing.

However, Janet wouldn't have excepted that Jason, who was suffering from a not too severe skull fracture, would have demanded to come with them. And no amount of arguing from both her and Jack had been able to convince him that his plan was a very bad idea, given his circumstances.

And so, Janet was still trying to figure out exactly what had happened as she drove one of the government issued sand colored Jeeps over the bridge that had been built across the Rio Grande. Jack was sitting in the passenger seat beside her, broken leg on the dash, crutches propped up wherever there was available space and Jason was sprawled out in the backseat.

"Jack," Janet began, looking at the man out of the corner of her eye. "What exactly are you planning on doing when we get to Sam?" She was almost afraid to hear the answer.

Jack wasn't quite sure just _what _he planned on doing; with a broken leg he couldn't exactly make it through the rubble and debris that surely blocked most of the entrances of the mall. "I'm making this up as I go." He answered, no trace of humor in his voice.

From the backseat of the car, Jason sighed, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling. "That's very comforting, boss."

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Once the novelty of being an engaged woman had worn off, Laura's mind began to turn toward the more pressing matters at hand, like the fact that both she and Sam had head injuries, that she was slowly bleeding to death and that they were still stuck in the building that was falling apart around them. And, on top of feeling like her whole body was collapsing itself, she was starting to notice that Sam was looking worse and worse with every passing second.

As though sensing her thoughts, the building around them groaned and shook slightly, causing the floors overhead to grate against one another, threatening to crumble. Laura's eyes left Sam's face and gazed upward, ignoring the steady pain in the back of her head. When the building grew silent once more, her eyes found his again. "What are we going to do, Sam?" She questioned, not trusting herself to stand.

Sam took her hand and held it tightly, kissing her knuckles. "Get the hell out of here." He answered, without a trace of humor in his words. He looked at Laura, brow knitted with worry. "Can you walk?" He asked the same question of himself, not surprised when he didn't get an answer.

Laura took a deep breath; what would happen if she couldn't stand? They couldn't stay in this building until help came or until it collapsed, she wouldn't let Sam do that. "There's only one way to find out." She mumbled, not quite sure that he even heard her.

Sam got to his feet slowly, wrapping his fingers around twisted rebar to help pull himself up; the floor spun, threatening to come out from under him and he closed his eyes, regretting letting Laura out of his sight even for a moment. When he opened them again, the floor was only slanted slightly and he remained upright, head pounding and beads of sweat and blood trickling down his cheeks. Sam let go of the rebar and extended his hand, intent on helping Laura to her feet. _And then what? _His mind questioned. _What are you going to do once you're both standing? Do you really think that she can make it out of the building the way you came in? Can _you? Sam didn't really want to answer those questions just yet.

Laura took his hand, her palm damp with sweat and blood from the cuts caused by the rubble and debris and closed her eyes as well, forcing herself to stand, heart hammering in her chest, anticipating the pain that the action would cause. As soon as she was on her feet, her back felt like it was being stuck with a fire-iron and her head screamed in pain, increasing the pain in the rest of her body. Laura cried out and her knees buckled, and she allowed herself to drop to the ground once more, letting go of Sam's hand and keeping her eyes shut tightly, biting onto her tongue to keep from crying out again.

Sam knelt down beside her instantly, ignoring the pounding in his own head, and took her in his arms. Laura pressed her face against his chest, unable to do anything more then let him hold her. He kissed the crown of her head, feeling his heart being torn to pieces at the thought of the woman he loved in so much pain; he wished that there was something he could do to keep her from hurting, wished he could take away the pain that she felt. For a moment, Laura just shivered in his arms, sniffing quietly, almost to herself, with her eyes closed, trying to force away some of the hurt in her body but it seemed impossible.

"I'm sorry Sam." Laura mumbled finally, taking a deep breath and opening her eyes slowly.

"Sorry?" Sam repeated, incredulously. "For what?" He stared at her with a mixture of concern and disbelief on his face. What could his beautiful Laura possibly have to be sorry about.

Laura didn't answer, didn't know how to put what she was feeling into words; she couldn't stand, she could barely move, and because of that they weren't going to be able to get out of the building. The building was going collapse, that was inevitable, and Sam was going to die because he wouldn't leave her. He was going to die and it was going to be her fault. But how could she tell him that?

Instead, Laura took another deep breath, as though attempting to collect herself and looked up at him. "You should go." She said, her voice wavering slightly even though she wished that it wouldn't. "Get help and I'll stay right here."

Sam shook his head. "Laura, I'm not going to leave without you." He said, his voice solid despite the fear and unease that was coursing through his body. "There's no way that I'm going to leave you here alone." Laura was watching him closely with her round eyes, glassy with unshed tears. "We'll think of something, someway to get out of here."

Laura nodded slowly, slightly because of the pain in her head and wished that she could believe him.

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The entrance that Sam and Brian had used to enter the building hours ago had been caved in during the last, miniature aftershock, forcing Brian and his group of survivors to find another way out. Together, he and Elsa managed to force open one of the storeroom doors on the lobby level just enough so that they could squeeze through and finally be free of the collapsing building.

Brian made sure he was the last to leave, keeping the door forced open just in case Sam and Laura made it to the lobby once again. Elsa stood beside him, watching him silently, as his eyes remained on the inside of the mall, searching for something he doubted he would see.

"Are you sure about this?" Elsa questioned suddenly, her voice soft and low. Her words caught Brian by surprise and he tore his gaze away, looking over at her. "You sure you want to leave him?"

Brian didn't answer, his gaze returning to the collapsing building in front of him. He hoped that Sam was all right and that he would get to see his friend again.

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Sam thought about lifting Laura, but didn't want to take the chance of his own legs giving out and hurting her even more. He didn't even know if he had the strength to stand again, let alone carry Laura as well. He was running out of options and time, judging by the way the building shook and creaked more frequently now.

Laura remained silent, watching him closely, every-so-often demanding that he leave and come back with help; Sam had gotten to the point where he didn't even respond to her feeble commands and so she had just given up. She knew that he would never leave her anyway, no matter how often she asked him to.

The building shook and rumbled as another aftershock rocked the ground; Sam stopped his search for something to help him move Laura and dropped to his knees beside her, wrapping his arms around her protectively. The shock was over just as quickly as it had come on and Laura knew that, while the aftershocks weren't lasting as long, they were just as strong as they had been before. The floors above collapsed upon each other, filling the building with an angry grinding sound as the floors crashed into each other, sending debris showering to the levels below. Laura held onto Sam tightly, as though that act alone would protect them from the rubble that would come falling down.

Even after the shaking had ended, rubble continued to shower down from the levels above, covering Sam and Laura with a thin level of grit and plaster. Sam lifted his head once the building had become silent, his eyes once again adjusting to the dim light; holes had begun to develop in the walls and ceiling, letting a faint amount of sunlight leak into the building. But the light was growing darker with every passing minute and he knew that the sun was beginning to go down, that it would be even more difficult to find a way out of the building in absolute darkness.

Sam once again got to his feet, slowly walking away from where he had propped Laura up was gently and comfortably as possible with both of their jackets, taking measured, careful steps so he didn't trip or force the pain in his head to grow worse. He knew that his search was growing even more fruitless, that, even though he was in a mall, he couldn't find anything to carry Laura in.

Laura squinted her eyes in the darkness, letting out a slow and measured breath, leaning her pounding, bleeding head against the fleece of Sam's pullover; she couldn't see Sam anymore, something that worried her and caused her heartbeat to speed up. She hated not being able to be with him, to make sure that he was safe, to have to wait until he came back to her. But she barely had the energy to lift her head anymore, let alone get to her feet, regardless of the sharp pain in her head and back. Laura knew that she was getting worse, that she was slowly dying no matter what Sam did and that knowledge panicked her. She couldn't die now, not after everything she and Sam had been through.

Forcing her mind to ignore the heaviness of her body, Laura looked down at her engagement ring, visible despite the dim light. Every time she looked at the ring, she loved Sam even more; she was getting married! It seemed so surreal, but so natural at the same time. Sam was the only person she wanted to be with and that was the only thing that mattered.

Laura was still studying her engagement ring when Sam returned, a look of despair on his face. "I can't find anything." He muttered and she looked up, brow knitting. "Laura," he seemed absolutely helpless. "I don't know what to do."

"You should go." Laura said again, kissing him when he knelt down beside her. "Go and get help."

Sam kissed her forehead and looked her in the eye. "I am not going to leave without you." He promised and Laura's eyes filled with tears. "I love you and we're going to find a way out of here together."

"I love you too." Laura whispered, kissing him again and resting her head against his shoulder. _Too much to let you die for me_, she thought but didn't say, closing her eyes and trying to pretend that she was somewhere far away, where both she and Sam were safe.

Sam remained silent for a moment, listening to the sound of Laura's heavy breathing as she lay against him, trying to think of just how far it was to the lobby. Would it be too far for him to carry Laura? But with the recent aftershocks there was no telling how the topography of the building would have changed; could they even still make it to the bottom level? What about the broken staircase he and Brian had climbed up hours ago, was it still even attached to the upper level?

None of that seemed to matter anymore; Sam knew that he was out of options, it was either leave Laura, carry her or both of them stay until somebody came for them. The first was out of the question, the latter seemed unlikely and he knew that they didn't have time for him to sit around and debate whether or not he could carry Laura over unknown obstacles to the bottom level.

Sam pulled away from Laura, regretting having to do so and standing up once again. Without a word to her, he turned and headed in the direction he figured he and Brian had come from when they had first entered the building hours ago. Laura watched him disappear again, knowing that something inside of his mind had clicked and he possibly had a plan. She hoped it was a good one because she didn't want to be left behind anymore then he wanted to leave her.

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When Sam returned, there was a slight smile on his face; Laura looked at him hopefully, and he noticed right away that her skin was growing even more pale and waxy and her eyes were losing their shine. This was their last chance, he knew that now, because she wasn't going to last long enough for him to think of something else. "I think I've figured something out." Sam said as he knelt in front of Laura once again. He slipped one arm around her shoulders.

"Sam," Laura was looking at him with as much curiosity and worry as she could muster. "What are you doing?" But she already knew the answer to her question: he was going to try and carry her and whether he realized it or not, or even cared, he was going to hurt himself even worse.

Sam didn't answer, just lifted her gently, enabling himself to slip his other arm beneath her knees. Laura put her hand on his shoulder. "Stop, Sam." She commanded with as much force as she could and he looked at her with worry in his eyes. "You're going to hurt yourself."

"I don't care baby." He said, kissing her cheek. "We can't stay here forever; you need a doctor." And so did he, for that matter.

Laura felt tears sting her eyes and she quickly blinked them away. "Sam, I am not going to let you hurt yourself even more." She said, her voice wavering. She tried to pull away from him but moving hurt too much and she sighed, remaining in his arms.

Sam felt Laura's words tug at his heart and he was reminded once again of just how much he loved her. He forced himself to smile as he said, "Baby, you can't even walk. I doubt that you could stop me." Laura stared at him and he could see that her heart was breaking at the thought of him being hurt. Well, he felt that same way about her. "I'll be okay." He promised. "And when we're out of here, you can take of me." Laura couldn't help but smile slightly at that.

Sam took Laura's smile as a sign that she wasn't going to try and keep him from attempting to save her life. Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes and slowly forced himself to his feet, feeling his legs shake as though they were made of loose rubber as the floor seemed to drop out from beneath him for a moment. He tightened his grip on Laura to keep from dropping her, even though she weighed close to nothing in his arms, and prayed that his head would stop pounding and the dizziness would fade.

"Sam?" Laura's voice shook with worry as she spoke his name, watching him through tear-filled eyes. Despite how gently he had lifted her, her head still burned with pain and her back didn't feel much better and she wished that he would just set her down again so that she could give up and rid her body of the pain in her head. And if she died, then Sam wouldn't have anything to keep him from leaving the building, from being safe. _Listen to yourself, _Laura thought_, do you really think that Sam would just leave you if you died? Would you leave him?_

Sam opened his eyes again, looking at Laura's beautiful, worried face. "I'm fine." He forced himself to mumble, though he felt anything but. "Are you all right? Did I hurt you?"

Laura forced herself to lie as well, slipping her arms around Sam's next and holding onto him tightly, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. The sooner they got out of this building, the better, then they could both get the help they needed and get on with the rest of their lives.

Taking another deep breath, Sam turned around slowly, watching his face carefully to make sure that he didn't slip on anything, toward the direction that he had gone moments earlier. He had found the stairwell that he and Brian had gone up earlier, still hanging loosely to the level he and Laura were on now, with the debris cluttered lobby below them. Sam knew that if he could make it down the broken staircase, then getting out of the building would be much easier.

Slowly, he started in that direction, holding Laura tightly against his chest; she rested her bleeding head in the crook of his shoulder, whispering weakly how much she loved him. Hearing how exhausted and weak she sounded made Sam want to quicken his pace, to get out of the building and get her the help that she desperately needed even more then he already did. But hurrying would make him careless and carelessness would lead to an accident and neither of them could risk an accident.

Laura's eyes were fluttering, as she tried to force them to stay open and Sam carefully quickened his pace, navigating in the dim light through the piles of debris that threatened to trip him if he didn't watch them carefully. Even if he hadn't believed it before, even if he denied it with everything in his body, he knew now that Laura was dying and that time was even shorter then he had first believed.

Thankfully, the stairwell came into view, though Sam knew that he was posed with yet another problem; how was he supposed to get Laura down the crumbling stairs? If she could wrap her arms around his neck, he could somehow shimmy down with her on his back. "Laura," Sam said, feeling that familiar burning in his heart as he waited for her to open her eyes. She finally fixed him with her beautiful doe-brown eyes and he let loose a quiet sigh of relief. "Do you think you could get onto my back?" His legs were getting weaker, his head filled with nothing but pain, everything dark and dizzy at the same time. _Just a while longer, _Sam continued telling himself, _just a while longer..._

Laura nodded dutifully and forced herself to stand for a moment, ignoring her burning back and pounding head, until Sam bent slightly so that she could slip onto his back. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, hanging weakly while Sam slowly starting descending the crumbling staircase on his stomach. She rested her cheek against his, enjoying how he felt behind her, his steady breathing, pounding heart and warm skin. "I love you Sam." Laura told him, feeling as though saying it was the most important thing she had ever done. She wanted him to know, without a doubt, that he had been the only person she ever loved, just in case she didn't get the chance to tell him later.

"Ditto." Sam said, quoting one of the most famous scenes from one of Laura's favorite movies. Whenever he replied in that manner, it always made her smile and he could tell that now was no exception, that Laura managed to smile weakly even now. "We're almost there, just hang out." Sam didn't know if he was assuring her, or himself.

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The fact that one of Jack's crutches knocked Janet in the forehead just as she neared the collapsing building at the same time Lucy and J.D. arrived in Lucy's own sand-colored Jeep caused the accident. The front ends of the Jeeps crashed into each other with enough force to nearly send Jason tumbling off the backseat and everyone else slamming into their seatbelts.

Jack felt like he was suffering from whiplash when the Jeep snapped to a complete stop, causing him to knock back against his seat with a groan. "What the hell...?" He mumbled, peering out the windshield and into the front of the second car. He wasn't at all surprised to see Lucy behind the wheel.

Lucy groaned as she unbuckled her seatbelt, rolling her eyes when she saw Jack grinning wirily at her from the front seat of the other car. She should have known that he was going to find a way to get to Sam. J.D. was muttered something as he climbed out of the passenger seat, rolling his neck and wrists, as though they had been somehow damaged in what couldn't even really be called an accident.

Jack pushed his own door open with one of his crutches and hopped out, managing to keep his footing until he got both crutches on the ground. He hobbled over to Lucy, who was standing by the driver's side door and casually inspecting the front of the Jeep. She focused her gaze on him. "What are you doing here, Jack? You have a broken leg." Though it wasn't as though he needed any reminding.

"I came looking for you. And Sam." Jack answered. "Figured I'd better stop you before you hurt yourself." He smiled slightly.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. "Right." She muttered. "And who was supposed to stop you from killing _yourself_?" She questioned before waving her hand dismissively. "Never mind." She studied her husband closely. "So, what's your brilliant plan this time, Jack?"

Jack's wiry grin returned. "I haven't really gotten that far yet." He told her. "I was hoping that you'd have the plan this time."

Lucy shook her head, rolling her eyes. "You never change, Jack Hall."

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Sam's feet had just touched the ground when another aftershock began, rattling the building with more strength then the previous ones, sending debris and rubble raining down from the collapsing floors above. He could tell that this was the one that was going to destroy the building, that the mall couldn't take anymore shakes.

The floors above that hadn't already collapsed were giving way down, chunks of plaster and cement dropping to the floor around them. He and Laura needed to find some sort of shelter before it got much worse, otherwise they might not have to worry about whether it would be better to have beef or chicken at their wedding.

Laura slowly lifted her head off Sam's shoulder, half-closed eyes looking around. "What's going on?" She questioned, eyes growing wide when she saw a chunk of floor from above crash into the staircase they had just come down.

"Aftershock." Sam answered quickly as he backed away from the staircase, which slamming into the ground seconds later. His eyes quickly searched for something that would provide cover from the falling debris. Sam's eyes settled on one of the benches that he had noticed hours earlier and he headed in that direction; it wouldn't be much, but it was better then standing out in the open.

Sam gently helped Laura slip off his shoulders and made sure she was beneath the low, cream-colored bench before sliding in beside her, seconds before a large chunk of plaster landed where he had been standing.

Laura pulled Sam closer to her, pressing her face against his chest as the ground shook beneath them, feeling as though it was going to tear itself apart before the aftershock finished. Pieces of the floors above landed on the wooden slats of the bench, which somehow managed to hold, splinting slightly but keeping the debris from landing on them. Sam wrapped his arms around Laura's waist, holding her tightly and wishing that the aftershock would end before the entire building fell down on top of them.

But, as the building continued to collapse, that seemed highly unlikely.

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Lucy had stopped Sam's best friend, Brian Parks, out of the corner of her just as the aftershock started. She braced herself against the side of the Jeep, holding tightly to Jack's hand as he did the same, standing beside her and struggling to keep his footing. Brian looked around, panicked, for something to hold onto and could see the rest of the survivors from the mall doing the same; the doctor held tightly to her twin boys, who clung just as tightly to her legs.

Brian stepped away from the building, fearing that pieces of it might come falling on top of them and saw Elsa doing the same, heading toward the two Jeeps that were parked a few feet from the entrance to the mall. When he looked closer, he could see that Jack and Lucy Hall had braced themselves against the side of one of the Jeeps and he felt instantly relieved; help had finally come. He just hoped that it wasn't too late for Sam.

Jack gripped Lucy's hand tightly, knowing that they were thinking the same thing: the building in front of them couldn't withstand another aftershock, it was falling to pieces before their eyes and their baby boy, their Sam, was still inside. Lucy squeezed her eyes shut and pursed her lips, hoping that Sam wasn't in the building anymore. _Please, please, let him be okay._

It seemed like years before the aftershock finally groaned to an end, the earth shuddering for the last time before everything grew eerily silent once again. The silence was only broken by the twisting and groaning coming from inside the building.

Lucy's eyes snapped open instantly and she started toward the building; Jack's grip on her hand forced her to stop and whirl around the face him. "What are you doing?" She questioned, trying to pull away. "Sam's in there."

"I know." Jack said, his voice even despite the pounding of his heart. "But you can't go in there. The building is still falling apart."

Lucy glared at him. "So you're just going to stand here?" She jerked her hand lose. "Stand here while Sam is still inside, hurt?"

"Damn-it, Lucy, no." Jack began, trailing off when his eyes settled on Brian, who was looking around worriedly, as though he expected the aftershock to return. Maybe Sam hadn't been inside the building after all, maybe he had been outside with Brian. He shouted the boy's name and Brian turned in his direction, hurrying over when he saw who had called him. "Brian, where's Sam? Is he with you?"

Brian shook his head, brow knitting. "No, he stayed inside." He answered, telling the Halls what had happened after they had found Laura as quickly as he could.

Lucy's eyes narrowed when he had finished speaking. "Goddamn-it, Brian," she hissed with as much fever as she'd had when she'd spoken to her husband. "How could you just let him stay in that building? You should have done something." She forced herself to remain under control; shouting at Brian wouldn't solve anything.

Brian didn't know how to respond, couldn't find the right words because he knew that there were none, knew that he should have forced Sam to come with him, forced his friend to leave the building. Now he was probably dead and he hadn't done anything to stop it from happening. "Dr. Hall, I'm-" He began, stopping when he saw that Lucy's eyes weren't on him anymore, but looking past him.

Lucy's eyes went wide as her hand fluttered up to her chin, fingers pressing against her lips. "Sam." She whispered breathlessly, tears filling her eyes.

At her words, both Jack and Brian turned quickly in the direction she was staring, with Jack nearly losing his footing as he struggled to see what had captivated his wife. Sam had emerged from the spot that Brian and the others had come from only moments ago, bleeding and covered with dirt and white dust from the plaster, holding Laura in his arms. For a moment, Jack couldn't believe what he was seeing, forced himself to realize that this wasn't a dream, that he was indeed watching his son struggle to put one foot in front of the other, carrying the woman he loved carefully in his arms.

"Oh Sam." Lucy whispered again, voice a little louder this time, hoarse with emotion as tears slipped from her eyes and down her cheeks. For a brief moment, she allowed her eyes to settle on Laura, checking to see if the girl was alive but she was too dirty and bloody to tell for sure, before she gazed up at her son again. Her precious, only son was alive and she felt like a huge burden had been lifted from her heart.

Jack managed to hobble toward his son without the aid of his crutches and Lucy and Brain followed quickly; Sam smiled faintly at them when they reached him. "She's alive." He said, looking down at Laura with tears in his eyes and a slight smile on his lips.

Sam managed to slip Laura gently into his father's arms before he felt his knees give way, dropping him to the ground below. His vision grew dizzy, growing darker by the second but he didn't fight it this time. Laura was alive, she was safe, they both were, and those were the important things. That was all that mattered.


	10. Epilogue: The Happy Ending

Epilogue

The Happy Ending

When Sam Hall woke, the first thing he realized was that Laura, his beautiful wife, wasn't laying in bed beside him. He yawned, blinking his eyes to chase away the last remains of sleep, sitting up and leaning against the headboard; his eyes scanned the bedroom, but she was no where in sight. The shower wasn't running and the house seemed almost too silent. Sam was just about to throw back the covers, get out of bed and go looking for her when the smell of something burning reached his nose and he rolled his eyes. Laura was in the house, all right, trying to create something out of smoke and burned eggs in the kitchen.

The smile still on his face, Sam laid back down again, figuring Laura had the smoke under control since he hadn't heard the familiar hiss of the fire extinguisher yet. She had told him that one of her new projects as a wife (and he never got tired of thinking of her as his wife) was to learn how to cook, which found her in the kitchen on most days, dousing her latest creations with water.

Sam couldn't help but laugh out loud when he heard Laura cry, "Damn it!" and the hiss of the fire extinguisher soon after. He rolled his eyes, his grin growing wider as he wondered if everybody had it as good as he did. A beautiful wife that insisted on cooking even when he told her that take-out was just as good, who happened to be the only person he had ever loved and ever wanted to. Sam knew he was lucky and he wasn't going to take her for granite even for a minute; he knew better then most people how quickly you could lose the things you loved the most.

And that was why he made sure to tell Laura everyday just how much he loved her, just in case he didn't get the chance to tell her the following day. And that was also something Laura did every chance she got, told him with a kiss and smile just how much he meant to her.

As he lay in bed, listening to Laura squeeze the life out of the fire extinguisher, Sam thought about all that had happened in the past five months since he and Laura had escaped from the crumbling building. They had both spent the better part of a month in the hospital in the American Embassy, with Laura recovering from a skull fracture and he trying to get over his concussion. He'd often made his mother mad by sneaking out of bed and going to visit Laura until Lucy had just sent him home to recover on his own. But home hadn't been home without Laura and he'd told his mother he'd sprained his ankle, an excuse to spend all the time he could with Laura.

After Lucy had sent her future daughter-in-law back home, Laura and Sam had spent weeks planning the perfect wedding; he had just wanted to make her happy, something that aggravated Laura to no end until she finally got so sick of hearing 'if that's what you want' that she locked herself in the bathroom, told him he could plan the whole thing himself, just to make a point. Sam had apologized for nearly twenty minutes before Laura had thrown open the door with a huge smile on her face.

And despite that teasing fight, they had had the most beautiful wedding Sam had ever been to. Granted, he had only been to one, but he figured that was beside the point; Laura had looked absolutely stunning in her wedding dress. When it had been time for them to exchange vows, he had leaned close and whispered in her ear so that only she could hear his words.

_From the first moment I saw you, I knew that I was in love with you and I've always hoped that maybe someday, somehow, we'd end up here. Though, I never could have guessed everything that would have happened along the way, but I would do it all again if it meant that I would get to be with you for the rest of my life. You are the most beautiful, kind person I have ever known and I love everything about you and I always will. I just want you to know that, without doubt, if tomorrow never happens, that I love you Laura Chapman and I'm always going to love you._

Sam smiled at the memory, of just how beautiful she had looked with tears sparkling in her eyes after he had said those words to her. Three months ago already felt like a lifetime, and he couldn't wait to spend three more months with Laura, to wake up every morning to her singing in the shower or trying to convince her that she had plenty of time to learn how to cook and that burning down the house now wasn't going to teach her anything. Laura Chapman meant everything to him and Sam knew that she always would.

The door to the bedroom squealed quietly as Laura nudged it open with her elbow, attempting to balance a tray, laden with two glasses filled with orange juice and two plates piled with what Sam assumed was some sort of breakfast food, at the same time. When she saw that he was awake, she smiled and carried the tray over to him. "I didn't mean to wake you up." Laura said, kissing him as she lay the tray carefully on the bed and sat down beside him. "It was supposed to be a surprise."

Sam smiled. "Well, I smelled smoke so I thought that the house might be burning down and I'd better get out while I still could." Laura frowned, looking hurt despite the fact that she knew he teasing her. "Just kidding, baby," he said, looking down at the plates. "It looks great."

Laura's smile returned and she snuggled next to him, handing him a plate. "I threw out all the pieces that got fire extinguisher stuff on them." She assured him and Sam chuckled softly, rolling his eyes. She looked at him. "What's so funny?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing." Sam assured her, looking down at the plate before looking back at Laura. He took a bite of what he guessed, and hoped, was a pancake, trying to ignore the fact that it tasted like smoke and cardboard as he forced himself to swallow. He grinned at Laura again. "Maybe those cooking lessons you were talking about wouldn't be such a bad idea." He winked.

"Sam!" Laura snapped with a grin on her face as she swatted him on the arm. She rolled her eyes and pulled away from him. "Fine," she said, "if you don't appreciate my cooking, I won't try anymore." The grin was still on her face, because she would be the first person to admit that she couldn't cook.

Sam's grin grew even bigger. "Promise?" Laura swatted at him again. He set his plate aside and pulled her against him, kissing her, wrapping his arms around her waist. Laura returned the kiss, before pulling away and rested her head on his chest, intertwining her fingers with his.

As Sam kissed her forehead, he realized that life was indeed perfect.


End file.
